Justice Espinoza '17 Recruiting Profile

My name is Justice Espinoza and I started doing what I love (running) for my elementary school when I was 9 years old. In my early track days, I started out as a sprinter, running the 100m and 200m and competed well in these events for the next 4 years. Then when I turned 13, I began training with a different track team, in which we practiced outside of school and I continued training with the sprinters. This is when I met coach Steven and he would often encourage me to give long distance running a try because as he would say, “You are built to be a long distance runner Justice.” I really didn’t think too much about it, but then at one meet coach Stevens and my Mom forced me to run the 1600m.  Initially, I was not very happy with them for making me do this long distance event. It wasn’t that I had never trained for this event before, but the girls I was to compete with were a whole age group older than me. During the race, I stayed with the pack the whole time, not really knowing what I was doing, but I was able to compete with the older girls after all! After that race I had mentally changed. I discovered my passion and became a distance runner! This is when I decided to start running cross-country and really enjoyed it! When high school started, I was already competing at the varsity levels my freshman year for both cross-country and track. Some nights I had school practice then went home for dinner and came back for club practice. All the while, I maintained my academic eligibility by keeping A’s and B’s. I’m highly motivated and always putting forth my best effort. I am very open-minded and love trying new things that may challenge me both physically and mentally. This past year, my club coach asked me if I was interested in running the 2k steeplechase just to see if I liked it. I decided to give it a try even though I hadn’t had any barrier training before the race. I ended up placing 3^rd and qualifying for regionals in Texas. Then in Texas I also placed 3^rd and qualified for the opportunity to run at the National level in Florida. I was so excited to be competing in Nationals that I dropped my time to by 40 seconds! Currently I’m working on getting better hurdling technique and also to continue dropping my time to return to Nationals. I have always taken constructive criticism well and use it to better myself.  I’m always working on improving myself as a better athlete/person and doing whatever it takes to get myself at the next level. It is my goal to run at the collegiate level to get stronger, help my team grow and learn from experienced and talented coaches.  I want to major in sports medicine to become an athletic trainer so that I can help other athletes and to rehabilitate them to ensure they are healthy to preform at their best ability.