Andrew Apgar '19 Recruiting Profile

I started running my sophomore year of high school because my friends and I thought it would be fun so we gave it a try. I started the first day with the sprinters and decided that I wasn’t very good with sprints so I decided to try long distance. When I first started I wasn’t really too good but at least I could say I did a sport. The first meet I went to was a JV meet and I ran a 5:57 mile and I thought that was pretty good because I didn’t get last. During the rest of the season I was kinda the outcast because I was one of the slowest and I wasn’t really included in the longer runs some of the older seniors would take the others on. Towards the end of the season, two of our seniors, that were going to college for Cross Country and Track for MidAmerica Nazarene University and Trevecca Nazarene University, started to help me get better outside of practice. During the summer going in to my junior year and their freshmen year us three and sometimes a couple of other runners from the Cross Country team would go out and go on long runs and workouts. My friend that attends MidAmerica was more involved in helping me become a better athlete and we would do more challenging workouts apart from the other runners during the summer. On July 1^st, 2017 I ran my first ever 5k at this Firecracker fun race and I ran 21:14 and got 8^th out of 340 other runners/walkers and my friend reduced 1^st overall. After this race and half a summer of training. I knew that if I took this seriously enough that running could help pay for me to achieve a higher education. When Cross Country season came around and It was time for my first meet I was still kinda nervous and I still didn’t really know how to properly run a 5k. At my first meet I ran a 20:37 and I wasn’t too happy with it. I knew I could do better and that 20 minute 5ks weren’t going to get me anywhere, but I needed a starting point. I talked to my coach on what I should do and how to improve and the following week I ran 18:42. This was one of my most proud moments because I knew that all that work and all those miles have paid off and that’s when I really started to focus on my running ability. I would love the chance to run in college because right now as the number 1 runner on my team I have no one pushing me in practice to run faster besides myself and my coaches. I need a team of runners and coaches that will push me to run faster and harder at every practice and I don't have that right now. There is only so much I can do by myself. I know since I've only been running since my sophomore year and all the improvement I've been making so far that I still have a lot of potential and I would be very thankful to any coach that will give me a chance to run at the next level.