Tyrese Smalls and Isaiah Williams talk about what they do in simple terms:

“I just run my hardest,” Smalls said. “That’s what I do.”

“I like to jump,” Williams said. “It feels very fluid, jumping.”

What they have actually done this year is anything but simple. The former has already met the indoor track and field state-qualifying standard in his favorite event, the 300-meter dash. The latter won the county championship in the triple jump. Both are balancing athletic improvement with academic and leadership responsibilities.

Williams is one of Poughkeepsie’s two My Brother’s Keeper Fellows this year and “Tyrese has a lot on his plate,” said coach Nedra Garriques. “He takes a lot of dual-enrollment classes and things like that. He’s learning how to juggle school life and being a top athlete.”

All that work and achievement has earned them the distinction of being Poughkeepsie’s Co-Athletes of the Month for December.

Though the duo’s top accomplishments to date came last month at the Northern County Championship meet, it was the product of work through the opening months of the season, Garriques said.

Williams is “putting together, ‘This is what I need to do to be the athlete I can become.’ He’s putting in the work,” she said. The senior is also passing on what he’s learned about jumping to the next generation of Pioneers, just as he benefited last year from standout jumper Travis Jenkins Jr.’s guidance.

“Last year I improved a lot,” Williams said, noting Jenkins often calls him to talk about jumping. “I’m trying to teach a lot of them how to jump. Some of them, it’s working out.”

Coaching has, in fact, helped him rethink his own techniques and improve.

“For so long I’ve been doing it naturally,” he said. “I forgot to really analyze how I’m jumping. I notice there’s still some things wrong I’m glossing over.”

He jumped a personal-best distance of 39 feet, 5¼ inches at the Northern County meet Jan. 26, edging Arlington’s Casey Greene by more than 8 inches. However, Williams said, he knows Greene’s personal best is more than 40 feet, and he still has work to do before the season is done.

“Hopefully at sectionals, I can beat him,” Williams said of the meet this weekend. “Not just at the meet, but his personal best.”

Williams has already been accepted to Oneonta and Quinnipiac. Both schools have what he’s looking for – a track and field team and a civil engineering program.

Smalls, a junior, is just beginning the college process. He’s looking to go into finance in the future.

On Jan. 26, he placed second in the county in the 300 dash, clocking in at 36.71 to meet the standard to compete at the state meet. However, in order to reach that meet he’ll also need to place in the top three at the state qualifier Feb. 23. He also competed in the 55-meter dash and the 4x200 relay.

Reaching states and nationals is his goal before the end of his senior year. “I feel like I have to do a lot more in the short time I have,” he said.

In the meantime, the sprinter will keep running his hardest and keeping it as simple as possible.

“It just feels good whenever you’re passing people,” he said. “Usually, I just forget about everything. I just start running and everything around me just doesn’t matter. I just run.”