By Ken Hansard
The Lamar High cross country team began their season last year with only four girls. Halfway through the season, Mikayla Madison and her Tiger teammates recruited three tennis girls to help them for their stretch run. Madison, who was a junior last year, commented, “Those girls worked their tails off and ran with us for conference, district, and state. We took second at Districts, and I’m really proud of that accomplishment.”
The Tigers have a great story, but it is a story that bears a lot of similarity to Madison’s own introduction to running, as she was also recruited to the sport, “My love for cross country actually came from my neighbor. Her son ran cross country at Lamar, and she said that she thought that I would be really good at it, so I thought I would try it out for a season. That season turned into two, and before I knew it, I was running in middle school and now in high school. God gave me the ability to run, and that’s how I fell in love with cross country.”
If the Tigers are to make state as a team this year, they will likely have to pull off another recruiting coup, but regardless of whether that happens or not, Madison still fully intends to participate at the state meet, “I have two main goals for this year. One goal is to beat my PR’s from last year. My other goal is to make it to state with my team. There are only three girls on the team this year, but I would love it if we could all make it to state individually.”
As a senior, Mikayla is looking forward to her final year of high school competition and everything that being a senior demands – including leading her teammates on that individual charge to state, “I’m really looking forward to spending time with my team and getting to run alongside them. As an upperclassman, I hope that I’m setting a good example for the younger runners. I see it as my role to encourage them to be the best they can be and to always push themselves harder.”
Mikayla started leading by example during the off-season. She hopes that dedication will pay dividends over the next couple of months, “I’ve really been working on my mindset. One of the hardest things about running is your brain telling you to quit. So, I have been working on telling myself ‘Just one more rep’ or ‘It’s just one more mile.’”
When she is not running cross country, Mikayla stays busy participating in a wide variety of other extracurricular activities. She runs track in the spring. She is also in band, Lamar High’s Student Council, FFA, 4-H, National Honors Society, and the Tigers’ book club.
After graduation, Mikayla wants to go to college. She is currently weighing her options, but the frontrunners are Crowder, Missouri State, and Pitt State. She would like to someday become a teacher and possibly even a high school cross country coach.
