Naomi Kruh
Staff Writer
After four years on Mira Costa’s track team and three years on the cross country team, senior Amanda Han has decided to continue her love for running at the collegiate level. Han plans to attend Claremont McKenna College this fall after committing for cross country and track.
Han was a member of Costa’s Girls Tennis team her freshman year and once the season was over she was looking for a sport that would be more intensive for her. Han decided to join the track team her freshman year as a sprinter and the fall of her sophomore year she joined the cross country team.
“I had so many friends on the cross country team encouraging me to try it out and they kept telling me about how much they loved the team and how great the coach was,” Han said.
During her first year on the cross country team, Han ran for the junior varsity team, but after only one year of being on the team she had earned her spot on the varsity team her junior year. As for track, Han competed on both the frosh/soph and varsity team her sophomore year, and earned a permanent varsity spot on the team her junior year.
“Running has been great for Amanda,” Han’s mother Annie Han said. “It’s a lot of work but she has gained so much from the relationships with her coaches and teammates. Training for Cross Country and Track has taught her to be more disciplined with her time and diet.”
Since joining the team, Han has become an influential member of Costa’s distance team. She was chosen as one of the team’s captains for the cross country season of her senior year by her coach, Renee Williams-Smith.
“She is a natural leader,” Williams-Smith said. “She has the right attitude and she was already doing the things you would expect leaders to do without being asked.”
At the start of her senior year, Han sent out emails to the coaches at six schools she was interested in running for. Han was looking to run for a mid-sized Division 3 school and ultimately got responses from the coaches at Tufts University and Claremont McKenna College.
“I have been thinking about college a lot and when I was thinking about what classes I would take and what I wanted to major in, I just couldn’t imagine myself not running,” Han said. “I can’t picture myself doing anything else.”
Han chose Claremont McKenna after staying the night at the school and spending some time with the team. Han was able to see what the team dynamic was like and was able to do things like eat breakfast with the team and observe a practice.
“Everyone on the team was like a member of a close-knit family and they all cared so much for each other,” Han said. “It reminded me of the sense of family that I have with my teammates at Costa.”
After only three and a half years of running and two years on varsity, Han committed to Claremont McKenna in February of her senior year.
“I love to see all of the hard work pay off and it also means that they love running when they decide to run in college,” Williams-Smith said. “To me that’s what it is all about because that passion for running is going to continue beyond high school and that’s super exciting.”
At Claremont McKenna, Han will be running for both the cross country and track teams. Han also plans on enrolling in the Philosophy, Politics, and Economic major.
“I am excited to see what I can do at the collegiate level,” Han said. “Coach Williams-Smith is great. She is the best coach I have ever had, but I feel like college running is the next level and with more competitors and more teams I think I can move up a little.”
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