- March 2021
Personal Statement
When I joined cross country freshmen year, I had no idea what to expect. I had never run more than 15 miles a week in my life and I had always been a soccer player. Initially, I joined to get in shape for the spring soccer season; however, I ended up falling in love with the sport and decided to quit soccer (which I had played since I was 3) to pursue running full time. One year later, I would finish 15 th at the UIL 2019 Texas State Meet with a time of 15:20.96 as a sophomore. Running cross country has taught me many life lessons such as how to stay humble through success and the importance of hard work, but the most important lesson running has taught me is the importance of teamwork. Without my high school teammates, I would not be where I am today as an athlete or a person. My teammates constantly push me to work harder on the course and off the course. I always run for my teammates and try to get the best place for them because they have worked just as hard as I have and deserve the chance of competing at a higher level. When my team missed the State Meet by 11 points my sophomore year, only my teammate Branch and I advanced to the state meet. After the race, I was more disappointed in myself for not passing just one more person for the team than I was happy for making the state meet as a sophomore in the region of doom (the hardest region in Texas by far with powerhouses like El Paso Eastwood and Grapevine in my region). I ran with a chip on my shoulder at the state meet and wanted to show all the teams that beat our team at regionals that Amarillo High was no joke, and at the finish line, I found myself in 15 th place with a huge personal record. My goals collegiately include running in college and competing at the highest level in order to inspire kids in my hometown that is is possible to make it out of Amarillo and become successful. No matter how much the wind blows in my face (Amarillo is one of the windiest places in the U.S), I will continue to push and chip away at my personal records for myself and my teammates. I hope to continue this building of relationships and teamwork in college and I appreciate any interest in me or my teammates.
