Mason Love '21 Recruiting Profile

I began running in seventh grade; I quickly found it to be the biggest joy in my life.  I loved the time every day after school with my teammates and coaches, and that is still true today.  In my 8th grade year, my speed broke out, and people realized I could become something.  It was mostly a joke, but some of my friends in eighth grade would say, "Hey, there's a D1 runner coming by.  Watch out!" After 8th grade and winning athlete of the year at my Middle School, I began my freshman year at Memphis University School. The cross country team at MUS was very tight knit.  My teammates and I had the kind of camaraderie that you can only get by working really hard together.  We were best friends. I had a successful season in cross country and outdoor track that year. I was the top rated freshman in Memphis private schools in 2017.  Prior to my sophomore year, I moved to Charlottesville, Virginia.  It was very hard to leave my coaches and teammates at MUS behind, but as soon as I arrived in Charlottesville, I had summer running to look forward to and an entire new team at Tandem Friends to meet and bond with.  Charlottesville is extremely hilly.  Coming from very flat Memphis, this was a huge shock; nonetheless, I went through my sophomore cross country season with a successful ending for the "new kid" on the team.  I won the Delany Athletic Conference Championship meet, Tandem won its first conference championship, and I was named DAC Runner of the Year.  A week later I placed fourth in the D2 VISSA state meet and was the fastest sophomore in D2.  I continued to train and grow stronger during the indoor season, which was a new experience for me as indoor track is not a Memphis thing.  When the outdoor season began, I focused on the 1600, 3200, and running the first leg of the 4x800 relay.  The highlight of the spring outdoor season was running 9:56 and breaking 10:00 in the two mile.  At the VISSA state meet, my 4x800 relay team won state, and I was D2 runner up for the 3200.  I am getting ready to start my junior year of high school, and I look forward to hearing from you.  I don't know what running in college means yet.  I don't know if that means being at a big or small school.  All I know is that I want to continue running because it makes me happy.