Tyler Mimnaugh '25 Recruiting Profile

Heading into high school, my focus has been on soccer. Although the head cross country coach kept trying to recruit me over the summer, I opted to stay where I thought my heart fell - soccer. I played freshman and JV soccer the fall of my freshman year. However, once the soccer season had ended, the head XC coach again kept trying to recruit me. I ended up running with the team during their practices all the way through post-season. I really enjoyed hanging out with the XC guys, there was definitely a team unity that I, personally, didn't experience in soccer. Then came indoor track. I ended up breaking the freshman indoor 3200 m record for my school after only running it a few times. So I started to consider possibly trying to do both soccer and XC in the fall of my sophomore year. However, then came outdoor track. I found that I really did excel at the longer distance runs. I only ran the mile once during our regular season and just missed our freshmen outdoor record by barely 0.5 seconds with a time of 4:38. I also ended up breaking the freshmen outdoor record in the 3200 m run with a time of 9:52 and qualified for regionals as a freshman in a tough sectional conference. I think I have finally found my calling. I ran XC as a sophomore and truly enjoyed running my team. We even managed to exceed pre-season predictions with placing 18th in the state meet. My favorite part of XC and track is running as a team. The team unity is really what convinced me to give up soccer and focus on running. Every meet the guys cheer until the very last person finishes and you do not find that in any other high school sport - that is what I am looking for in my college experience. I want to be part of a team that wants to do better and strive to hit their goals - as a team. I believe I can be one of those contributing team members to help them meet their goals and I look forward to the chance to try.