Abel Squires '24 Recruiting Profile

My name is Abel Squires (class of 2024). I am a track and cross country athlete. I'm a classically-educated homeschool student and I dual-enroll and compete at one of the largest high schools in the state of Iowa. Starting around 6th grade I started to take sports seriously: I was inspired by stories of athletes who put in the work to become their best selves. Since then I've had a serious competitive itch. My 8th grade track season was canceled so my Freshman season was my first experience with the sport. Surprising myself, I experienced some success and made the varsity 4x800m as I fell in love with the extreme competitive aspect of the sport. Now, I've given up the other sports I played and focus solely on training and competing (which I do year round through the school and club seasons).

I love middle distance races, particularly the 800 and the 1600/1500. I love the one-on-one competition of these distances. I love to push myself and try new things, including longer and shorter races and a short foray into the 400m hurdles. In college, I see myself as a middle distance and maybe a steeplechase runner too. for cross country, I may not be the strongest 8k runner, but I could not see myself sitting out a whole season of competing .

Academically, I've always loved school and learning. Some memories I have from childhood are watching MythBusters instead of cartoons and reading a lot of books. I still have a wide range of intellectual interest, so am currently trying to narrow them down into the field I would like to study in college. Regardless, I know my main goal is to continue to improve and compete as a college runner and become the greatest athlete possible. I set high goals, and do everything I can to achieve them, whether that be running a faster time, beating another runner, improving my ACT score, or trying to score 100% on an essay.