From Ordinary to Extraordinary
Senior Gavin Sehy is not your ordinary cross country runner.
When Gavin started running he was just an ordinary runner. Gavin started cross country in 6th grade, and his 2 mile time was 19:12. Other 6th graders in his class were running in the 14s and 15s. Gavin was no star yet.
Gavin continued running in highschool and in 9th grade Gavins personal record for the 5k (3.1 mile) was 19:38. Gavin was starting to see better records, yet they were still just ordinary times. When Gavin was in 10th grade he ran a personal record of 18:43, and ran at the state meet for the first time. Gavin placed 188 out of 248 runners. Gavin was slowly moving on from being an average runner, but he still was not catching eyes at 188th place.
However, when Gavin was a junior this changed.
He began taking running more seriously, running a personal record of 17:31 at states, and placing 38th. In one year Gavin went down an immense 150 places. Gavin was no longer your ordinary runner.
Senior year Gavin really picked up the pace. Literally. Over the summer Gavin trained for and ran a 50 mile ultramarathon. This training put Gavin in great shape for the cross country season which ended in Gavin running a 16:21 5k at states and placing 8th.
Not only did Gavin place 8th at states, but Gavin also juggled school in the mix and maintained a 4.0 GPA for the first quarter this year he was running. Gavin’s hard work and dedication is what took him from an ordinary runner to the 8th best runner in Michigan's division 4.
This past Tuesday, November 15th, Gavin announced his commitment to running at Southwestern Michigan College.
Gavin went from running an average time of 19:38 freshman year, to running an extraordinary time of 16:21 his senior year, to now committing to run in college.
Gavin says “if there is one thing I have learned from cross country it is to work hard, really hard”. Gavin wasn't born with this skill, but worked hard for himself and is deserving of every accomplishment he has achieved. With dedication and hard work like Gavin, you too can achieve your dreams.
