For the second time in as many years, Emporia High will send a female track and cross country runner to the Division-I level.
EHS senior Michaela Reynolds has committed to run for the Lady Owls of Rice University, a member of Conference USA, in Houston.
Reynolds will pass Layne Moore, who graduated from EHS last year and now runs at the University of Missouri, as the Lady Spartans’ most recent Division-I athlete when she signs with Rice sometime in early February.
“I’m really excited,” Reynolds said. “I’m a lot less stressed out now that I’ve finally made my decision. I’m really happy with it.”
Reynolds, the 2005 and 2007 Class 5A State cross country champion and 2006 State champion in the 3,200-meter run in track, chose Rice over Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. She will join a Rice program that is coming off a 16th-place team finish at the NCAA National Cross Country Championships this past fall and also will compete for the school’s successful track program.
“I loved both Northwestern and Rice, and loved both of their schools,” Reynolds said. “But Rice had a little more-established cross country and track program, and that was sort of the deciding factor.”
At Rice, where she will major in biochemistry and cell biology as a pre-med student, Reynolds will be asked to compete in 5-kilometer and 6K races in cross country and 5K and 10K races in track.
While the mileage will increase dramatically from high school — girls in Kansas run 4K in cross country while the longest race in track is 3,200 meters — Reynolds said she believed the setup actually would benefit her more.
“I’m actually really excited to do the longer races because that’s more of what I excel in,” she said, “and in high school, there’s not very many opportunities to run those distances, at least not in Kansas. That’s more of my strength, so I look forward to it.”