Victoria Riccardelli '19 Recruiting Profile

Running in college has always been a dream of mine. Just watching the olympics alone marks my goal on how I want to be as a runner. When I was in 8th grade my school would compete in this meet called the Meet of All Stars and usually most of the 8th graders would attend. When the time came to compete at the meet one of my coaches said that I wouldn't be able to run because my times were slow compared to my opponents. Well being a runner and being told you can't run is like telling a kid they can't eat candy. And to that day marked the time I started to get serious about my running career. 

 High school rolled around a few months later and I started my first cross country season. I knew how competitive it would be so I made sure I kept my head in the books to keep my grades up. Which I did, I leveled out to be an A-B average. Sooner or later winter track came and that's what really got me in love with the sport. My first race I was timed at a 1:15 for a 400m dash. Watching the other athletes and how their times were I knew I had to train harder, so I started lifting weights and adding more effort into my workouts,and you know what they say, "what you put into something is what you get out of it" so I started eating better, more veggies and proteins in my diet. Little by little my times started to decrease. Then spring track came and I was given the opportunity to run varsity, which being a freshman I was ecstatic.  I ran varsity  400m dash and 400 intermediate hurdles!! Who knew I had that much in me. Ultimately, my goal was to achieve varsity by the end of my freshman season, and I am proud to say I accomplished the task.

One of the things I learned to love about track is the support I have with my teammates. Whenever we have a day when one of us is down, we are always there to bring eachother up. Some may say track is an individual sport, but in my experience this has not been the case. My teammates have had a lot to do with my success during my freshman year.