In Her Own Words: Stefanie Kurgatt

 

 
Habari! Hope Everyone is having an awesome week thus far. The days are certainly going by super fast, and I can’t believe that we are two weeks into March. As for that time change,  I can’t quite tell if I like that or not. After just stressing how important sleep is, losing an hour isn’t always great, but gaining some extra daylight at the end of the day isn’t so bad. So, I guess there is only one solution to this problem, everyone go to sleep an hour earlier. 
 
Last week was yet another solid week for Maclay and Florida running as a whole. We had several impressive performances from one end of the east coast to the other. Maclay attended the Bolles meet and really threw down some amazing times. A little run down on the Maclay side starting with Tamani Wilson (our star studded freshman). She raced to a 58.33 400m and took first place. Senior Kristin Sweeney ran a perfectly paced race to get her a second place finish in the mile. We also had some girls and boys perform really well in the consolation heats. On the boys side, our 4x8 team gutted out a third place finish and Connor Dougthon came back to blast a new pr in the mile. Congrats everyone! I am so proud of my team, we continue to excel and it is such an honor to be on the team. 
 
Florida continues to be a track and field powerhouse, and to me that is almost an understatement. We have so many amazing athletes and it is awesome to see everyone excel in there certain events. There were several Floridians competing at New Balance Indoor Nationals, and as always we represented Florida very well. Three people became indoor national champions. Congratulations to Kali Davis-White, Ceolamar Ways and Jeremiah Green. It was yet another amazing experience for me. I ran the 800m and it was my first time running on a banked track. It was a pretty good race for me as I posted a time of 2:15. I definitely learned a lot and am excited to officially start concentrating on outdoors. It was a lot of fun being at the Armory. I was able to meet Jenny Simpson and get a picture.  Also, hanging out with everyone from Brooks and Puerto Rico was great. It was like a little reunion. These types of events create great exposure and lifelong friends. This is not the last time for me being at the Armory. I will be competing there many more times as a Hoya, so that was just a little taste of what’s to come. I am quite excited.
 
From the time I started back up running at the end of December to now; my base and aerobic fitness has definitely improved.  It is amazing how much running cross country can really help. But I am starting to feel my long runs and long intervals take effect. I felt really strong throughout my whole race, but with a little more aerobic work I’ll be ready to take down my pr’s!  As always I am keeping in mind I am getting stronger not only to finish off my high school career with a bang, but also start my college career strong.
 
On the Hoya side of things, Georgetown threw down some solid performances at NCAA Championships.  There were top finishers in the mile and 3,000. Also the DMR ran to a respective sixth place finish.  Congrats ladies and I can’t wait for next year. So apart from running, I am obsessed with everything Georgetown. This includes basketball. A lot of us are big basketball fans, and get a little pumped up as March Madness approaches.  Well I am not even at Georgetown yet and I am a diehard Hoya fan! You can catch me glued to the television whenever a Georgetown game is on. A  little shout out to the Georgetown Hoyas who just clinched a regular season championship and good luck to them as they head off to Big East Championships! 
 
As always, God Speed.

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