Race-walking star, sophomore, Kelsey Jordan is making news at WHB this year. Jordan has made a lasting impression on the girls track team and hopefully for the next couple of years to come. With Nationals coming right around the corner Jordan is preparing tremendously.

Jordan started cross country and track in her 7th grade year and hasn’t stopped since. Last year she joined the track team and started race-walking that winter. When asked why she wanted to participate track she responded simply with “cause I like to.”

Jordan decided to race-walk when Coach Broich was looking for new recruits. Jordan volunteered and the rest is history. Jordan is currently 4th in the nation for the 1500 meter race-walk, but in April she was second. “I was happy, shocked and thrilled at the same time” said Jordan.

Team mate, sophomore, Kate Griffin has gotten close to Jordan this season in particular. Griffin said “I could never try race-walking! My sister race-walks and she’ll try to teach me sometimes just for fun and it is not as easy as it seems. Everybody assumes race-walking is just speed walking, but it’s not! It’s seems very painful and it definitely takes patience and determination to learn and master how to race-walk.” Griffin also added “Kelsey adds a very positive, friendly feel to the track.”

Griffin spoke about the rigorous workout the race-walkers endure and the specialized workouts the girls have. “It could be 5Ks some days, a mile one day, or just sprinting a few meters” says Griffin. Race-walkers also have to make sure they stretch out and protect all of their injuries before working out. Before a big meet the girls don’t work as hard and have a light practice so their muscles don’t get tight.

When Jordan was asked about her favorite thing about track, she said “I love the team.” Some advice she would give future race-walkers would be “It’s hard and really frustrating at the beginning, but you learn how to do it. You may get disqualified in your first couple races, but it’s a learning process. Have lots of determination and you will succeed”.

Nationals are on June 19th in North Carolina and the Hurricane Eye wishes the girls luck and to win big!

Good luck and I know you’re going to do great! We still got two more years of you race-walking and I know you’re going to do nothing but improve 🙂 ~ Kate Griffin