Hailey Butler '25 Recruiting Profile

During my season and a half of cross country and my half-season of track, I have learned many new things about myself. I have learned what it is like to be a part of a team and give each teammate motivation to run faster and to receive and appreciate motivation and praise from other teammates. I have also learned how to be competitive, even though I have always tried my best, running has taught me that every place and position counts and that staying competitive is key. Running has also taught me to be more realistic and that every day and race is different and that everyone has bad races, days, tests ETC, what matters is that you reflect on the mistakes and put them behind you to keep moving forward. During my 8th grade season my first time running, I quickly learned that I had many obstacles to overcome. The first thing was that I had no clue how to pace myself, with time and practice I have improved to get more even splits, however, I am still working on using more of the energy that I save for the end. My biggest obstacle was trying to keep up with my fellow teammate, we were both always within seconds of each other but I was always just a little behind and my biggest goal was to catch up with her so that we could start to win races for the team together.  

I would consider myself a very driven student, regarding both academics and sports. I constantly set goals to achieve and once I do, I just set new ones and continue to work towards those. I am very interested in Marine/Aquatic biology, environmental science and technologies, ecology, and waste management. Biochemistry and renewable eco-friendly energy production also interest me. All of these topics interest me because since I was very little I have always been interested in marine science, ever since I visited the aquarium for the first time. My interests only grew in these topics when I researched and conducted experiments for my science fair project regarding the ecological effects of acidic rain on aquatic environments. Track and Cross Country are very important to me but my academics are equally as important. My goal for high school is to break 20 minutes for my 5k and I would like to graduate with A full IB diploma with all HL science classes. I would also like to continue to be on the honor roll all throughout high school.  My goal for college would be to receive both a master's in Marine Science and Biochemistry. I find lots of motivation In both Track and Cross Country, I love the feeling I get when I'm on the line and the gun goes off, and the adrenaline kicks in. I love hearing my friends, family, and teammates cheering for me. Most of all I love the feeling when I do well or PR and even when I'm just competitive throughout a race. I would say the number one thing that makes me different from other athletes and students out there would be the amount of drive and commitment I have. I am very driven to succeed, I go to practice 5 days a week then I come home and do 3-4 hours of homework, then I have meets on Saturdays and work on Sundays. I am happy to do all those things because I strive for good grades and excellence.