Taliya Gossett-Salahudeen '22 Recruiting Profile

I am currently a Junior in High School and have been on my school's Varsity Track and Field team since Freshman year. I have always had a passion for track, and joined my first club in fifth grade. Since then, I have joined multiple track/cross country clubs both inside and outside of school and have found that I excel at short sprints and Long Jump. During my freshman season(2019), I broke two school records: one for Long Jump, and one for the 100m dash. I suffered a few minor injuries such as shin splints, etc, and although that did affect my athletic ability to a small extent, I perservered. I am extremely passionate about Track and Field, which, in turn, allows me to be competitive and driven. It is definitely been somewhat challenging learning to manage the balance between my athletic goals, academic success, all while maintaning an active social life and participting in other extracurriculars such as volunteer work, but it's definitely gotten more manageable with time and experience. I was looking forward to my sophomore season, as I was not a "newbie" anymore and was looking to better my athletic abilities, as well as taking on a more prominent and active lead within our team, as many of my teammates and close friends on the team were seniors would graduate once the season was over. However, the season was sadly cut short due to COVID, and I was only able to participate in one league meet. Although I placed first overall in the Long Jump, 200m dash, and  4x400m relay, and 2nd in the 100m dash, I was still quite unsatisfied with my results. I vowed to myself that I would push myself even harder during training in order to exceed even my own expectations. Then, COVID became a huge issue and school were forced to shut down, which meant that the track season was over as well. While this was extremely disappointing news, I did not let this deter me. I continued to train and stay in shape through life fitness courses that my school offered, as well as taking to initiative to train at the track on my own. I look forward to picking up where the season ended last year, and push myself harder than I ever have(COVID willing, of course).