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Questions 1: What was your greatest moment while competing in high school?
My greatest moment in high school has to be earning all-state honors in cross country during my senior year. It was something I had worked for, and after having come up just shy of placing all-State junior year, and not even qualifying for the state meet sophomore year, it felt amazing to finally achieve my goal and end my high school cross career on a high note.
Question 2: What is your biggest regret (related to T&F in high school) or what would you have done differently and why?
While there are a few things that I regret during my high school running career, I don't think I would change anything. The trials that I endured made me the person and runner that I am today.
Question 3: What will you miss the most about HS T&F/XC?
The things that about high school running are my coaches, team, parents, and friendships that I made with other athletes and coaches.
Question 4: What is some advice from incoming frosh and rising seniors on your high school team that you would like to share with them?
Advice for freshmen: Give it a shot. It's going to hurt, you're going to hate it sometimes, but the memories you make and the friendships you form are absolutely unforgettable.
Advice for seniors: it's ok if it's not the year you envisioned. It's ok if you feel alone because all your friends graduated; there are so many people out there who want to support you.
Question 5: What was the hardest workout you did your entire high school career? Did you like it or did you dread it?
Over my career, I've completed many difficult workouts. I'd have to say one of the most challenging ones was 3 miles with 200 easy then 200 hard. The hard 200s were at mile pace. My mile pace for workouts was 5:00 (I hadn't ever run a 5:00 mile, but I trained as I had.). On paper, the workout didn't seem super hard, but it was. The first six I was hitting 32-35, but the second half I was struggling to hit 37. We repeated the workout a week later and it was just as hard as the first time.
Question 6: How did you make track/XC a very individual sport into more of a team sport?
I made xc/track more of a team sport by creating my own team. Unfortunately, the majority of the time, I was the only female distance runner from my team at meets. Initially, it was really lonely, but then I started becoming friends with girls on other teams. By the end of my senior year, I was friends with the majority of girls in all my races. In Loudoun County, I had my own special team with the girls/coaches on Loudoun Valley, Heritage, Dominion, and Riverside. It was extremely nice to have a group of girls to warm up with and talk to at meets, instead of being by myself, as well as having people to celebrate triumphs with and who offered words of encouragement after a bad race. It was also nice to have coaches who cared about me and helped me when my coaches couldn't attend. Running is an amazing sport because there are so many people out there who want to help you achieve your goals.
Question 7: Finally, what are your college plans? Will you be competing in college, where? What do you plan on studying? What do you have as career plans?
I plan on running D1 cross country/track at James Madison University (jmu) in the fall! I'm super excited to see how far I can go in the sport I love! I plan on majoring in Marketing, with a goal of one day working for the Disney Company!
