Sport: Cross Country and Track

Personal Record: 5K: 22:00 MIN

“I wish I could just keep getting better. But usually that’s not the case. You might PR one time, and then you might get a slower time, and then you might do even better. So you want [your time] to keep getting lower every single meet. And that usually happens if you put in the work at practice and keep working. But sometimes it’s not what happens if you get a bad night of sleep, if you’re just really not feeling good, or if it’s a really, really hot day. You just have to have grace with yourself. Sometimes I get really disappointed if I don’t get the time that I put in my head for myself, but I have to realize, as long as I try my best, that’s all I can do. Like, you can’t control everything, you know.”

Sport: Swimming

Personal Record: 200 individual medley: 16:87 minutes

“My previous best time had been from last year, and I didn’t get another best time until this January. So it’s kind of like you’re just waiting the whole year, like anticipating it. We don’t have that many meets so it’s a lot of anticipation. And so obviously it can be a little bit frustrating if that doesn’t go as planned, because you don’t have that many chances.”

“The hardest is knowing that a millisecond is good, because sometimes you think [that] I need to get a second off, but it’s like knowing I got one millisecond off, even though it’s not the best out of here, I improved… It’s just so exciting [to reach a new PR]. It’s something to celebrate as a team. … Then you can just plan for the next race like ‘how can I beat this again?’”

Sport: Track

Personal Record: 100 meter: 13.6 seconds

“Struggling to reach a new time is definitely hard, and it’s definitely not a fun thing to be doing, but having the people around me that I do have, makes it more fun to practice and work and strive to be better.”

Sport: Swimming

Personal Record: 50 freestyle: 47 seconds

“I always compete with myself. I don’t compete with others… It was either last year or two years ago, I was trying to get my 50 free under a minute, and it took months to get from like 101 [seconds] to 59 [seconds]. So it just took a lot of determination. I got a little frustrated, but I eventually got there, and now I’m under 50 [seconds].”

Sport: Cross Country and Track

Personal Record: 3 mile: 23.13 MINUTES

“Well, my best time was regions this year. And I think that every time that I ran, I got a little bit of a faster time, even if it was like three seconds. So then region was my best [time], and I think I was just really happy. Yeah, I’m proud of myself. It kind of became a thing where I was like, ‘Oh, just like, keep running a little bit faster every time. ’ And it just felt good, because no one was putting that pressure on me. I was putting pressure on myself.”

“Swimming the 50 free, which is an event where literally everything has to be perfect or I’m not going to [have the] best time. It’s definitely frustrating. I’ve cried, I’ve screamed, I’ve been mad, all the things, because I try so hard, and then I’m not getting [the] results that I want. But at the end of the day, if you’re doing all the things you want to do, then you never have goals to keep reaching.”

Sport: Cross Country and Track

Personal Record: 3 mile: 21:55 MINUTES

“So I haven’t PR’ed in a few years, which I’m a little bit disappointed about, but I think as long as I just keep working as hard as I can at every practice and always striving to do better, I’ll be happy with that, even if my time doesn’t get lower.”

Sport: Swimming

Personal Record: 50 freestyle 25.5 seconds

“It’s very exciting [to PR], because all the hard
work you’ve put in is paying off. Swim is an individual sport, so everything is on you. If you do well, it’s all you. If you do bad, it’s all you. So getting a new personal record is just very exciting, because everything you’ve done is work paying off.”

Sport: Track

Personal Record: 3 mile: 24:07 minutes

“I would just say it’s hard to push yourself to get better every time… At the beginning of the season, I didn’t think I’d really do that well, and then I ended up going to state.”