As the school year winds down, Weaver is preparing for her next steps. The four-sport athlete and the school’s Athena Award winner will head this fall to Gustavus Adolphus, where she will compete in running and Nordic skiing, her favorite sport.

 

Q: What about Nordic skiing makes it your favorite?

A: The team is very close, and I really like our coaches’ coaching style. She cares about the team a lot. There are a lot of times when she invites us to her house and we do a lot of team bonding. She brings us to Yellowstone every year to train, and that’s really fun.

 

Q: What are some of your best memories from those trips?

A: One year we did a six-hour ski, and that was in 10th grade, and then every year after that, we’ve tried to beat that time and go just a little bit further.

 

Q: How do you balance all your sports with what you need to do academically?

A: I know that right after practice, I need to go home and I only have a certain amount of time. I think that I actually am more focused during sports seasons because I have such a strict time schedule.

 

Q: Do you have any goals for the remainder of this track season?

A: I’m kind of fighting an injury right now so if I am able to compete for the rest of the season, it’d be great to have a relay that placed really well at sections in the 4-by-800 and potentially to make it to state. But even if I’m not running, I really hope we get a lot of athletes to state on our team because they’re very dedicated and they’ve been working very hard.

 

Q: You were recently named an Athena Award winner. What does that award mean to you?

A: I didn’t actually know about the award but … it was a great honor. I spent a lot of time these past six years training and committing time and effort into these sports, and it was really great to be able to stand among all those amazing people.

BETSY HELFAND