Gabby Gunnerson '15 Recruiting Profile

My name is Gabby Gunnerson and I am a senior in high school. I am a three-sport varsity athlete with a 33 on my ACT and a 4.0 GPA.

I have been running both cross country and track for the past three years and it has become the highlight of my time in high school. For me, running is unique because it is very self-motivated. Prior to high school, I had only played traditional team sports in which my success was very closely tied to the success of my team as a whole. Naturally, this has both pros and cons. Running, however, is different because your success does not necessarily depend on whether or not someone else had a "bad day." Your success is determined by you alone. You can succeed and compete at the state meet despite the fact that the rest of your team may or may not be ready to compete at that level. That being said, despite the individuality of the sport, it is very much team-oriented. I can easily say that I have met my best friends through running. That includes both teammates and other competitors. The people who I run with are the people I am closest with because we simply spend so much time together and push each other to be the best athletes we can be. That is one of the main reasons I want to pursue running in college: that bond that a team has is a very special thing that you just don't get in other sports. I also want to run in college because I am a very competitive individual. I honestly don't know what I would do without the competition that running brings to my life.

I have not had the opportunity to train under anyone other than my high school coaches. During the winter, I play basketball for my high school so it would be difficult to try to balance that, schoolwork, and a club track team. However, this past winter I began lifting weights to try to gain some strength to improve my track times. During the first week of May 2014, my 800m time dropped about four seconds and I ran my PR of 2:20. Unfortunately, the following week I developed a respiratory infection and my times did not improve over the next couple of weeks as a result. At the Eastern Kansas League meet, two weeks after I had PRed, I ran another 2:20 and had my first experience of being boxed in during a race. I did not achieve my goals at the state track meet this year. I tripped on the rail on the inside of the track after a difficult cut-in for the 4x800m relay and my open 800 time was not where I wanted it to be. This, however, has given me the desire to work even harder this coming season to redeem myself at the state track meet this coming spring.

I am excited about the possibility of furthering my running career in college. With the ability to dedicate myself to running, I think my best days are ahead of me.