Hi, I’m Caryn! I’m a senior at Wilson High School this year. I’m really excited that you can follow along on my journey through senior year. I’m really excited to see where this year will take me and I hope I can stay both physically and mentally healthy through all 3 seasons.

I have been doing cross country since 10th grade and track since 7th grade. I started running, and jumping at the time in elementary school at our school’s track and field day. When I started track in 7th grade, I did the 400 and that was pretty much it. Things have changed a lot since then. In 8th grade, I mostly focused on the 400 but ran the 200 and 800 as well. This continued through most of 9th grade, until after a breakout meet I realized that the 800 and up actually came a lot more naturally to me. I came into my first cross country season that fall with high expectations because I knew I could keep getting better as long as I was focused on running and not doing other sports, because in the past, I had been “dual sporting” or even doing three sports at once (tri sporting??) with swimming, water polo, and field hockey. Now, just focused on running, I was excited, and I still am, to see where the sport will take me.

When I was younger, I saw myself as a swimmer. I wanted to swim in college, and then play water polo in college. But when I started track, I really liked running too, so I wanted to do that, too. I even thought I might be the first person to do water polo and track in college. (There’s definitely someone else that already did that somewhere. They’re pretty cool for that) But I always saw myself as a 400 runner, 800 tops. I never would have imagined myself running cross country in college. Now I can’t see my future any other way. I love cross country because it challenges me, keeps me focused, and has helped me become a lot more disciplined. I have changed and learned so much since I started cross country and it’s been a really special experience to be a part of.

That being said, I do run indoor and outdoor track in the winter and spring. I run anything from the 800 and up but I usually run the 1600 and 3200 in big meets. I would also like to gain experience and PRs in the 5K on the track because I hope to run that distance in college. I am interested in studying civil or environmental engineering, or civil engineering with an emphasis on environmental impact. Currently the schools I am interested in include Wake Forest, Virginia Tech, William & Mary, and Florida State. However, there are definitely a lot more schools I would definitely like to visit and learn about as I navigate senior year.

In my free time, I like to spend time with friends, go swimming at the pool or at the lake, bike, walk and read. I also like to write sometimes. I have a job as a lifeguard in the summer. I am also an only child, other than my dog, Triscuit, who we adopted from a rescue 6 years ago. She’s not really much of a running buddy though.