Alyssa Ohm '22 Recruiting Profile

Entering high school, my plan was to be an active competitor in soccer and gymnastics while acting in musicals and earning the best education I could. Sometimes, new opportunities present themselves and adjustments have to be made. My love for track began after discussing the events, the team, and the competitions with my gymnastics teammates. Never having done it before, I joined track two weeks into my freshman season and competed on varsity as a hurdler. By the end of my freshman year, I knew joining was the best decision I had ever made, especially after I competed in Freshman State, taking 5th in the 300 hurdles and 8th in the 100 hurdles. In the off-season, I trained to prepare myself for the next year. Sophomore season started and I was so excited to develop my skills more after only one year of being in the sport. When my school shut down after only a week of practice, I was devastated for myself, my teammates, and my coaches, but I trained for the next season by joining cross country my junior year, making varsity while physically getting prepared for track. My junior year track season finally came around and wanting to explore new things while continuing my training of hurdling, I decided to try triple and long jump. Throughout my junior season, I kept raising my bar for myself because the season was shorter and I had lost a year to compete. Once I would hit a new pr, I would aim to drop more time, clean up my form, or jump further. At regionals, I qualified for sectionals in the 100m hurdles, taking third place and at sectionals, my last meet of the season, I got a personal record in the hurdles. This summer, I decided to train by myself every day to prepare for the AAU district qualifiers. I am on the track running, jumping, and conditioning to get ready not only for my upcoming meets but also for my senior season. At the meet, I qualified for regionals in long jump, triple jump, 100 hurdles, and 400 hurdles. At the regional meet in Minnesota, I qualified for the AAU Junior Olympics in long jump with a personal record of 15’ 8.5” as well as the 400 hurdles after only my second time running it. 

For almost my entire life, I have been a gymnast and it has made me a stronger person than I thought I could ever be because I knocked down mental blocks with determination and the fear of injury became an afterthought after countless hard-working practices to try to perfect my skills. Having a gymnast mentality helps me on the field. Throughout my few years of being a track athlete, I developed the mentality that I can do anything I set my mind to and learned that it is up to me to become better because, without my own desire to race for a better time or jump, I wouldn’t be where I am today. I also learned that I just need to have fun while being competitive because I have been able to be more confident in myself. Not only the competition makes my love for the sport grow, but also my support system. My hurdle and lateral jumps coach, Mrs. Lauer, as well as my family, made this sport better than any I have competed in. As an athlete, I can motivate myself, push my limits, and beat myself because that is how I have been my whole life. Yet, having such a coach who is emotionally, athletically, and academically supportive allows me as an athlete to work even harder. More so, the unconditional support from my family keeps me going. Having parents who were willing to drive me to practices, watch every race, and cheer the loudest influenced me to train even harder while taking care of myself off the track. Academically, I have always been motivated by my future goals of becoming an obstetrician-gynecologist. With such big ambitions, I knew I needed to go the extra mile in high school, so I laid out a path for myself by taking honors classes at the high school starting in eighth grade and taking as many AP or college courses as I could while maintaining a high GPA. Additionally, I knew I wanted to be as involved as possible in my school. I am in three varsity sports, musicals, National Honor Society, clubs, and honors choir. Being so involved has allowed me to develop time and management skills. In college, I intend to major in biology or biochemistry and minor in Spanish because I want to be able to communicate with people from different backgrounds and communities medically and personally.