Emerson Walton '20 Recruiting Profile

Personal Statement

Emerson Walton

My name is Emerson Walton and Speed has been a part of my life since my earliest memories. I have always felt like I was fast. My parents noticed that I was fast and that I loved riding bikes. When I was 6 they entered me into a couple of local BMX Races. Eight kids on the starting line and it was all up to me on how well I did. 2 years later in BMX I found my self in the finals of the Texas Championships Competing for the win.

As the years went by I tried several other sports such as Soccer and Football. I found that I liked those sports but something was missing from the feeling I had in BMX from an earlier age. In Jr. High I ran cross country and had a fantastic coach that helped spark my interest in running. However, something just seemed to be missing.

In 9^th Grade I entered High School and signed up for Track and Field and the fire was ignited. The start of the season was like lighting the match that would eventually become an inferno. I had found my passion. I found my fire! I found what makes me burn for life. Lining up next to 7 other athletes and being able to put my passion against there talent.

Meet after Meet I was winning. I was soon moved up to Varsity as a Freshman and competed at Rice University and won my heat. It was not only the win that I was excited about. It was the feeling I had found once again. There it was buried in me and I had uncovered it.

My education has always been at the top of my priority list. I have always academically been at the top of my class. Discovering Track has rounded off my school experience and I began my thinking about what would come next.

During the start of my Sophomore Track season I strained my hip flexor at the first race of the season. It took the entire High School Track season to recover from this strain and I had to put ten times the work from working with physical therapy to strengthen the muscles around my hip flexors to get back to competition.

Coming off this injury I missed the chance to compete for my High School in districts. Coach T. Will. Helped focus me on getting back on the track and competing to run at the Jr. Olympics. We signed up for the AAU District Qualifier.

We showed up at the event and I was a little taken a back when I found out that I had to compete against the 17-19 year old age group due to my birth date as I was only 16. The Thursday Semi-Final was only qualifying 16 runners to go to the Finals on the Saturday race. After running my heat race I was ecstatic to find out I had tied for 16^th and qualified for the Saturday finals.

The Saturday race was only taking the top 10 to move on to the Regional Qualifiers for the Jr. Olympics. I knew if I did not have it this year that unlike most of the other guys in the race I had 2 more years in this age group to qualify. What I thought was an unfortunate event had turned out that I got to size up the competition for one more year. Saturdays finals came and I ran one of the best races I felt I have run to date. At the End of the day I had picked up 6 more positions and finished 10^th  qualifying for the Regionals.

At Regionals I ended up coming in 10^th and they were taking the top 6 to the Jr. Olympics. At the end of the day I expanded my reality of what is possible and to see a clear path to my near term goals and my long term goals.

Coach T. Will. Opened my eyes about extending my education and track abilities to a University that could help me reach new heights academically and on the track. I feel I have reached a balance between my academic goals and track goals. I want to pursue my education in the field of engineering while feeding my desire for competition on the track. I feel it is the perfect balance of building things in the classroom while tearing things up on the track.