SPORTS
4
February 2019
Extreme student-athletes reach new heights Students choose alternate schooling methods to further their athletic goals Alena Ruhstaller
Your heart is pounding through your chest as the next heat makes their way to the start. Countless hours of hard work, dedication, and after-school training have all added up to this moment. You block out all the surrounding noise and commotion; all you can focus on is your time and performance. The countdown strikes zero, and the race begins. For athletes Elizabeth Kravtchenko, Quinn Felton, and Max Hariri-Turner, weeks of preparation have led up to these moments time and time again. All three have competed in world championships or state championships for their sport. Elizabeth Kravtchenko, a high school junior at Middle College, represented the U.S. at the World Championships of the International Triathlon Union (ITU) in Australia in 2018. “I started taking triathlon racing seriously when I was 12-years-old,” Kravchenko said. “It became my ‘full-time’ sport freshman year. My dad and I started to really look into the sport by watching videos, reading magazines, and going to elite competitions.” During her sophomore year at Carlmont, Kravtchenko finished in the top seven at nationals in early 2018 and dedicated all her time and energy to train for the ITU that coming September Kravtchenko enrolled in middle college for her junior year of high school to balance training and school work. “After qualifying for the world championships, I would train a different discipline (swim, bike, run) each day. The hardest thing was not having enough
time in the day to go to school, train, and do homework,” Kravchenko said. “I had a very narrowed vision on my goal and that allowed me to stay focused and overcome anything that came up.” At the ITU, Kravtchenko competed in the female age group of 16–19 years old against 55 other girls in the sprint race. The ITU race consisted of three parts: 750 meters of swimming, 20 kilometers of biking, and a five kilometers of running. “I was able to achieve a lot of personal bests at the ITU, especially on the bike. It was really cool to be racing against people that are so talented and to be in an environment that truly captures the sports energy,” Kravtchenko said. “Representing Team USA was a once in a lifetime opportunity. During the parade of nations, I truly felt like all of the time, effort, and money that went into training and racing made it all worth it because I was wearing the stars and stripes. It’s an experience that I wouldn’t trade for the world.” Quinn Felton, a junior, began to mountain bike competitively during his freshman year after discovering his passion for the sport in sixth grade. “I primarily race cross country mountain biking because it was the first type that I’ve done and my current development team focuses on it, but my love is for road racing since I feel that I’m better at it and it’s easier to see any improvement on the road bike,” Felton said. However, despite cutting his knee open two weeks prior to the state championships last April and being unable to bike for two months after stress fracturing his left foot last October, Felton continued to train. “I train 16 to 20 hours a week which calculates to about 30 miles of biking a day in addition to going to the gym twice a week,” Felton said. “Each workout has a
specific use in order to make sure that I’m at my peak fitness exactly on race day.” Felton aspires to pursue international racing this year as well as under 23 road racing professionally in college with the help of his Oakley sponsorship, which he acquired in September last year. “Applying for the Oakley sponsorship was like a college application, so I had to send all my race results, an essay, and letters of re c om m e n d at i on . Nine of us were selected throughout the country for the team and sponsorships. I get one pair of team edition glasses and bike per year and a large discount on their websites,” Felton said. Max Hariri-Turner, a junior, was first introduced to Spartan racing, an obstacle course race featuring different distances and challenges, for his father’s birthday. After placing in the top 25 percent in his first Spartan race, Hariri-Turner continued to compete in Spartan races within reasonable driving range and worked to break his records each time. “Competing for time and for fun is the same thing for me. Doing well is obviously fun, but seeing how far I can push myself is the whole point of these kinds of races so doing better personally is more rewarding,” Hariri-Turner said. Spartan racing offers a variety of races,
Alena Ruhstaller
such as the Stadion, Sprint, Super, Beast, and Ultra, which each focus on a certain skill set. Hariri-Turner completed his TRIFECTA badge in 2016 and 2017, which marked his completion of three different races in one calendar year. “I usually end up racing in the Sprint, Super, and Beast for distance,” HaririTurner said. “I qualified for the U.S. championship this year, which I might do in order to run the World Championship in Tahoe.” Next to competing for placement, Hariri-Turner embraces the sense of community that comes with the racing experience. “I love the feeling that those people running around in the freezing mud are my people and that I can trust them,” HaririTurner said.
Future college athletes dominate recruitment season Nihal Karim
Time is ticking. There are only 15 seconds left until the end of the game, and you can feel all eyes watching you as you’re about to score a goal. Regardless, you can’t help but focus on something else: the college recruiter watching your game to see your skills. Every year, thousands of student athletes commit to sports at both private and public schools. According to NCAA, a nonprofit organization that deals with student athletes, students should take core courses, such as English, math, and social sciences, starting their freshman year. During their sophomore year, students need to register with the NCAA Eligibility Center, where they can add information about their academic and athletic history.
Throughout junior year, students can update their grades, and upload their standardized test scores and official transcript at the end of the year. This information should be updated at the end of the student’s senior year of high school. Schools that recruit students for athletic participation are divided into three divisions: D1, D2, and D3, all of which vary in athletic intensity and amount of athletic scholarship money given to students.. According to the NCAA, D1 is the most athletically intense of the three divisions, and directs the largest athletic budget among the divisions. Furthermore, D1 schools also provide the highest amount of athletic scholarships. D2 falls somewhere in the middle of D1 and D3, with less scholarship money than D1, but
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more than D3 In addition, D2 schools require a GPA of 2.0, as opposed to the 2.2 GPA required by D1 schools. D3 differs from the other divisions with its primary focus on academics, while providing a competitive athletic environment at the same time. According to the NCAA, while D3 schools do not offer athletic scholarships, 75 percent of students receive some type of financial aid from the school they have committed to. Once the recruitment process starts, there are different periods of time during which a recruiter may contact and evaluate student-athletes. During the contact period, recruiters may have face-to-face interactions with the students-athletes and their parents, observe their games and competitions, and visit their high schools.
“I talked to coaches, sent them videos of my gymnastics, and screenshots of my grades and official test scores,” said gymnast Kyle Shuttle, a senior at Half Moon Bay High School who committed to UC Berkeley. “I started this during the beginning of my junior year, which is pretty typical for men’s gymnastics.” While in the past, a large number of student-athletes have committed to schools before the start of their junior year, most students committing now are in their junior or senior year of high school. “The rules have changed and they [NCAA] don’t allow D1 schools to talk to you before Sept. 1 of your junior year,” said softball player Tayler Wise, a junior. “After that, the recruiters can talk to your coaches or communicate with you through email, but no verbal communication is allowed
before that date.” Prior to the establishment of this rule, colleges were recruiting student athletes as early as their freshman year, which many criticized for a variety of reasons. “Committing to a school early, like in your freshman year, can be bad for both you and the school,” said softball player Eimear Cunningham, a senior who committed to University of Washington at St. Louis. “A lot can happen in four years. You never know if your grades drop, if you have an accident, or if you don’t develop as well as the recruiter thought you would.” During the evaluation period, recruiters may only have face-toface contact with student-athletes and their parents on the college’s campus. However, they are allowed to observe the student’s competitions and practices.