One of Mission Viejo High School’s best, Sophomore Katelyn Tuck, has been on Cross Country Varsity since her freshman year. She has a Personal Best of 19:28 for her 3 mile run, which she got a few weeks ago at the Woodbridge invitational.
Tuck plans on getting a sub-19 by the end of the season; she still has time to meet her goals. She has been running since 7th grade, when she did a track and field camp; unfortunately, only a month in, the camp ended short due to the pandemic. As a result, she had to run on her own, and, eventually, when high school started, she was able to start running with the team as a 14-year-old and was quickly placed on varsity.
Her biggest goal in cross country is to have fun and not stress about it too much. She is also in a full AP Honors class schedule, and with that comes countless challenges Her goal for her sophomore year is to keep up her 4.0 and try to get an A in Honors chemistry. Tuck would like to continue running in College, while studying something in the medical field or STEM, if she gets a scholarship. Her biggest inspiration in running is her Dad, who also ran cross country and track in high school.
In the past, Tuck has done basketball, flag football, gymnastics, dance, and volleyball but primarily played soccer.
When Tuck first started running, it was conditioning for the track. When she runs the 800 this year she will be adding both the one and two mile races, and she is thinking about competing in high jump. Her mom got her into running, but little did she know how much she would love it. She has a community and has made many friendships that she knows will last. She loves running with friends and says she loves it when she gets new Personal Bests. When she was asked about the coaches, she said, “Coach Myra is my BAE. I love her. Coach Belo is pretty rad – best moonwalk around.”
She wants people who are thinking about doing cross country to know that it is not as bad as it seems, and that you will have a community of people and will ultimately make amazing relationships.
