Griffin Ganz '18 Recruiting Profile

(updated 9/13/17)

Over the past summer, I attended the Boulder Running Camp and received an "Outstanding Athlete" award from the counselors and camp coaches/directors. I then attended the White Pass running camp in Washington run by Coach Phil English, in addition to running the Ragnar Northwest Passage 200-mile relay race.

Growing up in a bi-lingual/bi-cultural family, I have had the opportunity to speak two languages, travel to other countries and be exposed to their cultures. Since my father is German, my first love for sports was playing soccer, which I did competitively for 10 years. During middle school, I discovered my talent and passion for running, leading me to give up soccer last year and focus on running full time. Being a very organized and analytical individual, I like to study/learn about the direct relationship between the mechanics of running, different training methods, and how they collectively lead to optimal performance.

Throughout my 2017 Track season I have been able to analyze and reevaluate my strengths when it comes to training and competing. After a coach change (and therefore drastic training philosophy change), my training benefitted my abilities in the 800m, rather than the 3200m, as I was initially planning to compete in more often along with the 1600m. Although the season did not go exactly as I had planned, there were some moments which could give an insight to my strong points as a runner. As a result, I was able to grow as a leader on the team and learned many things on and off the track, especially flexibility and mental toughness.

At the beginning of the season after only running the 800 one other time, I landed a 2-second PR (1:57.64), all while running by myself. As the season went on, I continued to compete in the 1600 and the 3200, and ran both at the district meet. Despite all the changes, after running a solid 3200 at district, a few minutes later I came back to sub-in for an injured team mate, and helped propel our 4x400 to State! The options and choices are exciting and I look forward to speaking more with my mentors and getting additional guidance, especially since our coaching staff is unknown again for next year. Being a natural leader and helping the team become the best that it can be, has become more important to me than ever once I became a Track and Cross Country captain for my last year at Skyline High School. Overall, I am enthusiastic to continue evaluating and optimizing my training, as I find out how I can be the best runner possible and reach my full potential!

My aspirations for high school are to graduate with a 3.93+ GPA and set new school records for the 800m and 1600m. I believe my passion, discipline, hard work, and dedication are a good recipe for becoming a competitive collegiate runner and valuable asset to your team. I’ve had the great fortune of having great mentors and coaches over the past years, which helped me reach a lot of my goals to this point. I am looking forward to building a similar relationship with my college coach and achieve the next level, to fulfil my full potential.