Adriel Bajema '27 Recruiting Profile

I started running in seventh grade. It’s crazy to me that I haven’t been running for longer than that. Running is a huge part of my life. The team dynamic, mental and physical push, and overall lifestyle of a runner has been with me for so much of my school career, giving me a love and respect for the sport. I plan to go to college majoring in education and hopefully running with another amazing group of girls. I’ve been with the Sioux Center cross country community for five years now and I hope to continue past my Sioux Center career to contribute to a team in college. I’m looking for a NAIA, D2 or D3 university with a good christian community. I think faith and running go hand in hand. So much of a person's faith story throughout their life is just like running a race. Faith is hard, like running, you will hit walls and have obstacles to overcome. People beside you can push you and help you overcome those obstacles. I’m looking for those people; a strong-rooted community holding each other up through Christ. I want to aid the community with my gifts, passions, and push. I’m primarily looking at colleges that are not in large cities because of the small-town love I’ve felt in my local community of Sioux Center, IA. I admire community relationships and hope to build some at my future college through volunteering and participating in college clubs and activities. Thank you for reading! Here's some information on my running throughout high school: I started my first year of my high school cross country career as a junior varsity runner (2023). Then I moved up my sophomore year (2024), drastically cutting times meet-to-meet until I made the varsity team. We then, as a team, won both conference and district meets to go up and get second place at state! I can’t tell you how much that season impacted my views on cross country and my own abilities. I learned what it truly meant to work as a team and appreciate each runner, especially because we only got second place at state by three points! I came off of that seasonal high with goals to cut my personal time. So I started my Junior year season (2025) with more rolling PR’s. My consistent PR’s only slowed this season when I caught a round of influenza. I ran through the sickness to recover just in time for a final PR at Districts and a second round of State!