Other Voices

The four track-and-field athletes who were named All Americans at a national competition this month most often used the word “love” — not “pain” or “discipline” — to describe their relationship to their sport.Sophomore Kendall Barnhart and senior Kate Sclanlan both used the phrase “falling in love” when they described the joy of track.

“When I was younger, I was forced to run by my parents,” said Scanlan in this week’s Enterprise podcast. Her mother expressed the belief, “You have to get comfortable being uncomfortable.”

“I think that’s very true,” said Scanlan. “You have to get past the pain and you’re going to be like, OK, this workout is going to feel awful, and I might vomit afterwards. But it is a feeling like no other, like when you finish a race … and you go, wow, I just did that.”

Barnhart, on the other hand, said, when she first started track, her parents knew nothing about the sport.

She started as a student in Coach Christopher Scanlan’s gym class, she said, and, with his encouragement, decided to give running a try.

Once Barnhart got into track, she said, her parents did, too, and then her younger sister “fell in love with jumping, which she’s very good at,” Barnhart said.

The team of four girls — Barnhart, Scanlan, Maeghan Hickey, and Parker Steele — placed third in the 4x55m Shuttle Hurdle Relay at the New Balance Nationals, held in New York City from March 11 to 13.

They finished the relay in 34.99 seconds, placing them fourth in the United States and first in New York — while also breaking their school record and the Section 2 record.

This is Scanlan’s third time, and Barnhart’s second time being named All American.

Read the full article at https://altamontenterprise.com/03252022/all-american-athletes-have-deep-love-their-sport