Caden Ellis '25 Recruiting Profile

I began cross country in my freshman year of high school, merely as a side sport to do with a friend. However, by the end of my freshman year, I was the fastest runner on my team by 3 minutes, and finished 12th in the state race for my division. Still unconvinced whether running was something I wanted to pursue, I continued my progress in my sophomore season of cross country, without much offseason training, and ended up finishing 1st in the state that year for my division, with a PR of 18:09 in the 5K. The summer before my junior year, I worked on putting in as many miles as possible, to begin right where I left off the year before, but I quickly hit a wall when I injured my hip and was diagnosed with possible early-onset arthritis, setting me back months in my training. By the end of my junior season, I had finally reached the 18 minute times I was used to, but I have decided to continue running through the entirety of this offseason, in hope of keeping the momentum I finished the season with and translating that to new PRs that could get me recruited by colleges. My school, which is incredibly small, also does not have a track team, but I am working on finding a track club for this offseason so that I can post decent 1600 and 3200 times to complement my 5K PRs. Although I may not be the fastest runner yet, I believe that with a training plan and year-round practicing, I can get my times down to 15 minute PRs by the end of my senior cross country season. Beyond my times, I believe that my perseverance towards my goal of running in college, even with my hip injury, and my process of setting lofty goals for myself to reach, like a 15 minute PR by the end of my senior cross country season, make me a great candidate for any team.