Cora Cumming '22 Recruiting Profile

I had never been on a winning team. Growing up I always ended up on the losing teams, resulting in me learning how to define success and winning differently than other athletes. My definition of success is more complex than winning a race, a metal, or a trophy. To me, success is defined as how you get back up from being knocked down. And those who continue to get back up again and continue to fight are the true winners. As an athlete and a team captain, I cannot control who is on my team but I can influence how my team reacts to various times of being knocked down by bigger and stronger teams. This is how I have influenced my team to view themselves as winners and use that belief to shake down those bigger and once stronger teams.

During the 2020 Cross Country season, my team truly experienced defeat when not a single person made it to state. That season we let the other teams engulf us and let that continue to knock us down. The team had no confidence and it showed. We were losers. But it all turned around when we started the Track season with a different mindset, we weren’t going to let our past define us and we were going to show those same teams that had knocked us down how a true winner stands. We hit the season running (literally) continuing to improve and not let little failures define us. By the end of the season, we had more people from our team get to state than had gotten to state in 7 years. Now we are winners, and we aren’t stopping there. We are continuing to grow as a team and becoming stronger and more successful every season. I have learned that it matters how I define success because it will impact my improvement and strength as an athlete.