Lily Neff '23 Recruiting Profile

Hello to whoever is reading this! My name is Lily Neff and I am from Caldwell, Idaho. I moved to Utah during the summer of 2020. Throughout my running career I have learned a lot about myself. Ever since I started running I immediately knew that I wanted to get better at it and be consistent in my training. 

Gearing up for my freshman year of cross country and track I was running one day and I managed to break my left elbow. When that incident happened I did not let that hold me back from my training, a little bit after my accident I still kept running, I had a desire that know one could take. 

My freshman year of cross country was a decent year for me. I managed to run a 19:24.6 in the 5k. After my Freshman year of cross country I was looking forward to track season. Due to COVID-19 my season was sadly cancelled. Even though COVID interrupted track and cross country I still didn’t give up. 

During the summer I managed to run 45-55 miles per week for Cross country,  im planning on incorporating more speed work for my winter training for Track. So far I would say that my training has paid off. I improved over a minute in the 5k-3mile with a time of 17:51.9. My goal for the summer and winter of 2021-2023 is to Stay consistent with my training and improve even more.  

My Sophomore track season was sadly an unfortunate time for me. I had found out that I had a Stress fracture in my lower left leg. I was only able to run 3 races out of 15. Even though this track season was not so great I took it as a learning lesson to improve on my health and well-being. I learned new things about my body and I know now what to do in order for this to not occur ever again.

When I found out I was moving to Utah I was excited and nervous. I have competed with 2a Idaho since 8th grade and now I am competing with 6a Utah. which is a huge difference in conference size and competitiveness. I did not let that stop me from running with the top runners in my conference. Utah has some of the best track and cross country athletes in the nation. So it was an honor to be able to compete with one of the best. Not only was I able to do that I had competition that made me a better athlete. 

As an athlete I always make sure that I put forth the effort into my training and my schooling. I am a student with Dyslexia, schooling can be challenging. Even though it is hard coping with Dyslexia I manage to still get good grades, make it on the honor roll and work hard to maintain a good GPA. To work on improving my Dyslexia I attend math tutoring, coaching and after school help to make sure that I am on track with schooling. On the other hand with my training I make sure that I include proper workouts that consist of tempo runs, long runs, training runs, easy runs, track workouts and weight lifting or cross training.

If I were to be a student athlete at your school I would try my best in anything I had to do. I believe that hard work is a priority when it comes to being a collegiate athlete or college student. I always excel and overcome obstacles or challenges. I'm willing to put in the utmost effort in my extracurricular activities.