Most athletes discover the sport they excel in at a young age. For senior Madison Drennan, cross country was not exactly her first choice. Growing up, Drennan tried tennis, softball and cheerleading but did not enjoy them. So, she started running.<\/p>\n
\u201cRunning was one of those things I started doing because I couldn\u2019t do anything else, and it\u2019s developed into something I\u2019ve absolutely loved,\u201d Drennan said. \u201cI\u2019m very thankful for the ability to do it because it keeps me sane and it brings a lot of joy to my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
During Drennan\u2019s sophomore year of high school, she said she experienced a strange moment in her life. Harding helped get her back on track.<\/p>\n
\u201cI toured colleges my sophomore year of high school when my brother graduated high school,\u201d Drennan said. \u201cI was in that weird stage in life where I didn\u2019t want to go to school after I graduated. When I visited Harding, I actually liked it. I only applied to one other school.\u201d<\/p>\n
Drennan entered her freshman year as a new face among thousands, but instantly became a part of a family when she met her cross country teammates.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was really cool to come to Harding and already have a group of people to fit in with and have people I wouldn\u2019t feel weird around,\u201d Drennan said. \u201cIf I would\u2019ve come here without joining a team, I would\u2019ve felt swallowed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Drennan has received first-team All-GAC honors every year she has been at Harding. While her numbers show incredible talent, head coach Steve Guymon said it took a few years for Drennan to feel confident in her running ability.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt took me a good two years to drive into her that she has talent, and when it started clicking, she realized that maybe I was right,\u201d Guymon said. \u201cOnce she discovered that, she started doing things she didn\u2019t think she could do. I think she\u2019ll only get better and better throughout the year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Drennan said that as a team, she would love to win conference in her last season. As for personal goals, Drennan hopes to accomplish new things while staying healthy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to break 18 minutes in my 5K time; that\u2019s my personal goal,\u201d Drennan said. \u201cI want to make it through the entire cross country season without any injury just so I\u2019ll know I gave it everything I had. I want to go out with a bang.\u201d<\/p>\n
Drennan credits former teammates Ewa Zaborowska and Dallas Bailey as her mentors when she joined the team in 2014. She said that they have both been her role models.<\/p>\n
\u201cEwa was a phenomenal athlete but also a phenomenal person and hard worker in what she does,\u201d Drennan said. \u201cDallas was one of my best friends, and I really admired her work ethic. They\u2019ve both been really good examples for me spiritually and in life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Drennan has left a huge impact in the cross country team during her college career. Junior teammate Kayla Vance said that she will miss Drennan\u2019s fun-loving spirit and her leadership.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s one of the most encouraging teammates, and she tries to include everybody,\u201d Vance said. \u201cHer laugh is very contagious. She is super happy all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Drennan is a social work major and is considering graduate school or entering the workforce after graduation. However, she said that running has helped prepare her for life after college.<\/p>\n
\u201cRunning has taught me a lot about perseverance and teamwork, and those are things I can implement in every aspect of my life with raising a family or working with colleagues,\u201d Drennan said. \u201cBeing a social worker, you work with other people that are also helping those in need receive resources, so I think being on a team is going to have helped a lot with that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Drennan will compete in her next race on Friday, Oct. 6 at Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia, Arkansas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Most athletes discover the sport they excel in at a young age. For senior Madison Drennan, cross country was not exactly her first choice. Growing up, Drennan tried tennis, softball…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14854,"featured_media":9287,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14854"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9286"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9288,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9286\/revisions\/9288"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}