By Pierson VanGorp
Heading into her sophomore year for the women’s cross country team, Kaylee Scott decided she wanted to go above and beyond her personal best time. She put in countless hours of training in the offseason and expected it all to pay off. It would, as she broke the school record for an individual runner with a time of 19:08. Scott was 12 seconds ahead of the former record, which was held by Stephanie Thomas when she ran a 19:20 in the meet on Nov. 11, 2017.
“The success I’ve seen this year stems from more miles I put in this offseason,” Scott said. “My mentality is giving my all at every practice no matter how easy or hard the workout is.”
Before her breakout season, Scott joined the Grand Rapid Community College Raiders and made an immediate impact towards the team and its success. Scott had her personal record time in her second career race at GRCC and continued to shine as a freshman.
“For Kaylee, her first year was easier due to her breakout performance at the start of the year,” head coach Sharon Becker. “She saw so much success because of her good work ethic but then hit a plateau. She is a very good leader because she is competitive which sets an example for the rest of the team ”
All the hard work has paid off for Scott, but she has not let her success come in the way of the team’s connection. Scott has been a leader and someone the team looks up to due to her unmatched work ethic along with her consistently positive attitude. In the first race of her sophomore season, Scott placed 41st at the CMU invitational which included multiple Division I programs. Scott also placed first among GRCC runners, and continued to see success throughout the year,but she still felt there was more to accomplish.
“The season compared to my expectations isn’t near what I thought it was going to be,” Kaylee Scott said. “My times have been slower than I anticipated but slowly I’m getting to where I want to be.”
Scott expressed disappointment in her inability to break the school record for an individual runner during the first part of the season She worked all off-season to break the record and she had her eye on the record during the Muskegon Jayhawk meet on Oct.15. Scott pushed through the whole race and clocked a school record time of 19:08. Although the Raiders did not win the meet, it does not take away from the greatness that was displayed throughout the race. All of Scott’s hard work seems to be paying off at the right time.
The Raiders head into the postseason confident with the regional meet coming up this Saturday, Oct. 29.
“This is my last season here but I don’t want to lose what I’ve built, so I know I’m still gonna run and push myself to see how good I can be no matter where I go,” Scott said. “The thing I’m absolutely most proud of this season is breaking the school record.”
Coach Becker has short but knowledgeable advice on finishing the season.
“Now that she has broken the school record, she has hit a different zone as a runner,” Becker said. “She is ready for more success.”
