Dylan Lyons '22 Recruiting Profile

I started playing soccer at three years old. I played at a premier soccer club for many years and starting running in school in 7^th grade. For a few years that meant eating dinner and changing clothes in the car while going from one sport to another. By the time I entered High School, I realized I loved running a lot more than I loved soccer and decided to run full time. I quickly became friends with my new high school teammates who have always pushed me to be my best. Most of my inspiration came from my uncle, who was a two-time Olympic runner & world record holder in the mile, my parents and my grandparents. They always wanted the best for me and loved that I had a sport to constantly improve on.

In college, I’m hoping to be part of a team that consistently pushes me to be better and where I can help others to improve as well. I’ve found my greatest success with teammates and a coach who have supported me and inspired me to set and reach my goals. It’s very important for me to be part of a team of people who are always striving to be better. I want to be challenged to exceed my goals by my coaches and teammates and I want to work with others to achieve their goals. This outdoor track season was a perfect example of working together to achieve a common goal as myself and 3 teammates worked all season to break our school record in the 4X800, which we did at the New York Showcase Meet. I personally ran a PR and we broke the 21 year old record by 10 seconds & finished the season ranked 1st in NYS. I ended my outdoor season running it in 2:01.58

Academics are also extremely important to me. I’ve worked very hard to be successful academically and I need a coach/teammates that see the value in that. Finding a team that allows for growth as an athlete and academically as a student would be ideal for me. I'm currently interested in pursuing a degree in Engineering, Product Design or Industrial Design.

My 3 running seasons during the 2020/2021 School year were greatly altered due to Covid. My XC season we mostly had dual meets, all invitationals and Counties were cancelled as well as several special meets we traditionally run against a lot of other schools in the state (also there was no state meet). In addition, we only ran a 5K once, every other course was cut short. My Indoor Track season was run at an indoor sports facility mostly on turf. So while I was happy to run, it wasn't on the great indoor track facilities at local colleges where we usually run. We were able to have Sectionals, but no States.  My outdoor Track season started late, so we had less meets (like all my seasons this year) and they were mostly dual meets as well, only having a few Invitationals. We were able to have Sectionals, but no States. So, I'm really looking forward to Senior year and hopefully having a full 3 season experience. I've been training this summer with my XC team both running 6 days a week and lifting in the gym and am attending 2 camps, so looking forward to starting XC strong.