Lance Nicholls '22 Recruiting Profile

My name is Lance Nicholls, and I am a student at Winchester Thurston School in the class of 2022. What makes me an excellent candidate to run in college and separates me from other recruits is my hard work ethic, my potential, and my success in the classroom.

My junior year cross country season was my first time running in a race, after I played solely basketball and soccer my Freshman and Sophomore year. In basketball, I have been a varsity letterman in each of the three years of my high school career thus far, and have been a starter since my sophomore year. In soccer, I have been a varsity starter since my freshman year on a team that went to the PIAA Class A State Championship game in 2019. The reason that this is important in relation to running track and cross country is that it demonstrates the potential that I have. In my first cross country season, where I was practicing for soccer nearly every day and doing very little cross country specific training, I was able to accomplish plenty and improve throughout the season. I placed 3rd at the District 7 WPIAL Championships with a time of 16:34, where our team placed first and qualified for the State meet. At the PIAA State Championships, our team placed third and I came in 9th place overall. My work ethic was demonstrated throughout the season by doing everything that I could to help out both the Cross Country and Soccer teams. Just as I finished the Cross Country State Championship race, I had to get in the car and head from Hershey back to Pittsburgh and go immediately to the WPIAL Soccer Championship game. 

After a successful basketball season in which I was named to the Cover Three Athletics All-WPIAL Class 2A 2nd team while averaging 18 points per game, it was time to compete in my first track season. Throughout the course of the season, I showed tremendous improvement. In my first 1600 meter race, I ran a time of 4:39.72, and in my second race I already cut my time down to 4:33.34. Just a few weeks later, I set another 1600 PR by over 5 seconds with a time of 4:28.23, and I PRed once again 2 weeks after that with a 4:28.07 at my district meet. In my first 3200, I ran a 9:47.81, which was my PR for the season. I qualified for the State Championship in both the 3200 and the 1600, where I was 13th and 14th in 9:51.72 and 4:32.76, respectively. 

Although I push myself as hard as I can on the track, I pride myself on my academic success. I currently have a 3.98 unweighted GPA (out of 4) at a school that does not do weighted GPAs. On the SAT, I got a 1500 (780 Math, 720 Reading/Writing). I have taken a number of AP Classes, and all of the classes at my school are rigorous college-preparatory courses, so I feel that I would be able to thrive academically wherever I am for college.