Kelsey Lakowske pulls away from Eleanor Fulton late in the state championship race. Colorado Track XC file photo.
In a year with a bumper crop of distance runners graduating from Colorado high schools, Duke got one of the very best.
Lakowske marks the first Colorado women's signing for the prestigious North Carolina university since Maddie McKeever and Whitney Anderson signed the better part of a decade ago. Lakowske will take two state cross country titles and one state track and field title (with a possibility of more this spring) with her to Durham. She also takes two consecutive top-six finishes at Foot Locker Nationals.
It's been a fabulous high school career for Lakowske, and all the more so in that it didn't even begin until the fall of her sophomore year. By the spring of her sophomore year, she won the state 3200 and was nearly unbeatable in cross country after that point.
Needless to say, Lakowske had several options for where she would run in college. "I ended up being drawn to Duke because it would be such a different experience for me - Oregon would have been an easy choice since Eugene is like another Boulder but a little more wet - but I've never lived on the East Coast. I think my undergraduate years are a great opportunity for me to try something totally different for just four years. I might find out I love it, I might find out I hate it, but I'll never know if I never get out and give it a chance."
"I was very impressed with the coaches Kevin Jermyn and Liz Wort, and the team was just as welcoming. The academics were just as impressive."
Lakowske has already forged at least one lasting friendship among her future teammates, "Colleen Schmidt, who I met at Foot Locker last year, will be [headed to Duke as well]."
Like a lot of other people at this stage of their lives, there's a little apprehension for Kelsey Lakowske about the what lies on the near horizon, "Its a little scary to think about how close I am to my last months of high school ever!"
For someone whose high school experience has been as successful as Lakowske's, that's an understandable emotion. But it seems a reasonable guess that she will be able to make a pretty decent splash in her college career as well.
