Hello Everyone!
My name is Maria Seykora and I am a senior at the Academy of Notre Dame de Namur in Villanova, PA.
One of the goals for my senior year was to race in the High School Girls’ Millrose Mile. Recently, I competed in two of the qualifying races.
My coach, Laura Heilman, and I thought that I should try to qualify early because my training was going well. With that being so, I competed in the Bishop Loughlin Games on December 17. The mile is my favorite race and I was excited to run my first one of the season. I wasn’t too worried about what time I would run, but I did want to finish first.
The gun went off. I maneuvered myself into a good position and tried not to get boxed in. I stayed behind the leader, Alexis Panisse, for most of the race. With 300m to go I kicked it in. The crowd was really noisy so I knew that the race was going to be close. Alexis ended up passing me on the last straight-away and I came in second.
Although I didn’t get the automatic qualifier for Millrose, I was happy that I ran my indoor personal best for the mile. It was an exciting race for the beginning of the season!
I raced in the Molloy Stanner Games for a second chance about a month later. For this race, I planned to run with the lead pack and then sprint on the final few laps. I settled into the relatively comfortable pace, and then closed the last 400m in about 69 seconds for the win.
I ran about the same time as I did last time (5:01), but it was thrilling for me to qualify anyways. I’m looking forward to the Millrose Games! It should be a terrific race!
Best of luck this season!
- Maria
