Gloversville's Zoie Tesi leaps into the future | Leader Herald News

GLOVERSVILLE - Just days after Zoie Tesi was named the 2024 Female Fulton County Athlete of the Year, the Gloversville High School senior added a few more lines to the long list of reasons why.

Tesi won a pair of Division 2 jumping championships at the state track and field meet June 7-8 in Syracuse to raise her career outdoor total to three New York crowns.

“I’m pretty fulfilled with my senior year. I reached every milestone I set,” said the 17-year-old multi-sport star, who earlier in the school year was tabbed her class valedictorian. “This is what I wanted it to be like as a senior.”

What a busy and productive senior year it’s been for the U.S. Naval Academy-bound Tesi.

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In the fall Tesi was selected the Foothills Council volleyball MVP, and in the winter she was chosen the Section 2 Scholar/Athlete of the Year for girls’ basketball. The Fulton County award is among her top spring accolades as well as the state championships, those coming in the D2 triple jump and high jump.

Tesi had the best two efforts in the state triple jump event with a personal-best 39 feet, 1.25 inches in the prelims, and an even better 39-1.75 on her last try in the finals that ranks No. 9 all-time in Section 2.

More: Capital Region Class of 2024: Student Profiles

“I usually have four events at once and I have to divide my energy. I only had to jump once Friday [June 7] and I put in 100 percent,” Tesi said. “When I was warming up it went well. My coach said I went around 40 on one of my jumps, and I knew it was going to be a big day. I had momentum.”

Tesi placed third in the Federation triple jump that Saturday, and later in the day she won the D2 state high jump with a season-best 5-6 that was good for fifth in the Fed tabulation. Then it was off to senior prom that evening.

“That was a wild week,” Tesi said

Tesi also won the state outdoor high jump title as a sophomore, and this past winter she nearly snagged the state indoor high jump title with a leap of 5-6 but placed second on misses.

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“I’ve been chasing it. I got it my sophomore year, and didn’t get it as a junior, so I was definitely motivated,” Tesi said of her second state high jump title. “Before we jumped I heard a couple girls talking about how they were going to win and do this and that. They didn’t know anything about me or who I was, and I didn’t say anything, but I was thinking, ‘Never count me out.’ If you do, I'm coming 100 times stronger. I was fired up.”

Tesi’s outstanding 2024 spring included wins in the triple jump and high jump at the Section 2 Group 2 meet, Eddy meet and Fonda Invitational, and wins in the triple, high and long jump at the Foothills Council championship meet, Luciano Memorial and Bi-County Kiwanis meet.

Tesi also ran the 100 hurdles several times and won twice in dual meets and placed second at the Group 2 meet. She will compete one last time at the scholastic level in the high jump and triple jump at this weekend’s New Balance outdoor nationals.

“The Eddy meet was one of the biggest things to me,” Tesi said. “I won the high jump for the second year in a row, and I won the triple jump after losing by a quarter inch as a junior. That was one of my comebacks this season.”

More: Capital Region Class of 2024: Student Profiles

Tesi earned four varsity letters in volleyball, hoop and outdoor track/field, three letters in indoor track/field, and another in cross country. Her school years also included participation in Student Government, National Honor Society, Key Club, Jazz Band (she plays the saxophone), Yearbook Club and MasterMinds.

All the while, the classroom ace with a bent for the sciences was able to fashion a career high school average of 100.38 to secure Gloversville’s 2024 valedictorian honor. She was also named the Knox Middle School seventh/eighth grade valedictorian.

“Ever since elementary school I had it in my mind that when I graduate, I am going to be the senior class valedictorian or salutatorian,” Tesi said. “I was in fifth grade, and it was the Class of 2017 or 2018 when my brother [24-year-old Tyler] graduated, when I saw how cool it was to be recognized like that. That was the drive.”

Tesi will be following in her parents military footsteps when she heads off to the U.S. Naval Academy later this month as mom Julie Tesi and dad Andrew Eckhard both served in the Marines. Zoie Tesi has a long term goal to become a Navy doctor.

More: Capital Region Class of 2024: Student Profiles