Junior Yongting Chen runs beside a Medford runner. Photo taken by Sara Zakaria.
Yongting Chen is a junior at Malden High, and a member of the cross country team. Chen is on her third year on the team, making her a devoted member. Chen first joined the team to develop her running ability, and stayed on the team ever since.
Chen’s goals for the season is to achieve a metal for the GBL closing. Chen’s looking forward for the team to work together and obtain the GBL championship for another year. She cites her most exciting moment was when she heard her name on the morning announcements for the first time. Chen says she gets nervous every time before a race, because she doesn’t know what she can accomplish through each meet, and she worries about not making any improvement. Chen is also nervous about the chance of injury. She says it’s difficult to keep her body under a healthy condition due to long term running and doing well in academics, since lack of sleep and poor food choices can negatively affect your running ability. Her motivation for keeping her body healthy is when Coach Londino says, “you always have to keep your body healthy because what you eat and what you do, would always affect how you perform while running. Because your body is going to feel it.”
Not only does Chen have goals for cross country, she also has goals for academics. Chen takes an impressive amount of four AP classes. She says it’s a challenge to achieve an excellent grade in each class, so her goal is to keep her grades high, and get at least a 90 in each class.
Chen aims to improve her speed, because she wishes she can pick up the pace towards the finish line, since she says she always loses her energy at the end. Chen is not sure whether or not she wants to continue running after high school, but she’ll think about it.
Chen’s favorite thing about cross country is the team. “[She loves her] outstanding and marvelous teammates.” She says, “they’re amazing.” She enjoys spending time with them, both in practice and outside of practice. She likes how when they run as a pack, they pace each other and encourage each other. She says it’s difficult not to get along with her lovely teammates.
Chen’s other favorite thing about cross country is the spirit. The feeling of competition and winning through hard work is indescribable. She says because everyone in the team works hard and cares about the sport so much, the strong and positive thoughts build up the team’s spirit and strong friendship. “That’s what makes the team special,” she says.
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