Becca van Lent admits running wasn’t her thing when she first stepped up to the starting line.
“I decided to join Middle School cross country, but I didn’t like it when I first started,” she said. “It took me until last year to really start to enjoy running.”
Once the Skyline freshman found her joy in running it was game on.
“I began to appreciate the sport for the discipline and rigor it required,” she says. “Running is physically and mentally challenging, and you can’t fake the training. I also like how social it is. I’ve enjoyed meeting new people and getting to know them on the runs. Pushing each other, lifting each other up, and supporting each other builds lots of friendships on the team, and I love the community we have made. But running takes hard work to improve; you get what you give.”
Based on the results, van Lent and the Eagles certainly gave a lot – and it paid off.
In her first varsity meet, van Lent finished in 111th place at the Livonia Lamplighter Invitational, a nighttime event that featured 21 teams in their heat. The Eagles landed in 19th place out of 21 teams – not exactly a fast start. But it’s not how you start, but how you finish.
Van Lent finished in the top 10 in her final three races leading up to the State Finals, including ninth overall at Regionals.
The Eagles landed three runners in the top 10 at Regionals and grabbed third place to qualify for the D-1 State Finals at MIS. Van Lent finished in 48th place with a PR and Skyline freshman school record time of 19:01.2 running against the best runners in the state in Division 1. From 111th place against average competition to 48th place against the best in less than four months – now that’s impressive.
“Becca’s rise this season has been exciting to watch,” said coach Serena Kessler. “At the Jackson Invite, she ran her first sub 20, beating her older brother Christopher’s freshman time on that course by 31 seconds, and she just kept getting faster. She finished 7th at the SEC championships, 9th in region 4, and 48th at Division One Finals where she was the third freshman.”
Van Lent was obviously proud of how her team crossed the finish line in 2023.
“The team did a really good job of working together to lift each other up after good days or bad days,” Van Lent says. “I can really see how the community we built helped everybody improve. One of this year’s highlights for me was running with the team at States. The team was a close group. We did fun things like movie nights, corn mazes, Dairy Queen trips, cider mills, and a sleepover at Planet Rock, in addition to all the time spent together at practice.”
Van lent spends her off-season focusing on building strength and preventing injury. She typically runs six days a week, but also wants to begin cross training once a week. “During the beginning of the season I would frequently get injured because I was very eager to improve, but I didn’t have the strength to support the level of training I wanted to do,” she said. “The off-season is when a lot of the work is done. It allows me to do harder, more focused workouts without as much risk of injury. I run an increased mileage and do more strength training.”
She says staying motivated to run is “pretty easy.”
“Just by showing up I improve a little everyday, but staying motivated during the harder workouts can be harder,” she says. “When I want to stop, I usually think about my current goals and that usually motivates me to keep going. The mindset I have about a workout or a run can influence how much I get out of it. I can just try to get through it, or I can decide to embrace it. Why show up to practice if I’m not gonna try to get the most out of my time there? That’s the kind of motivation for me that can help me improve the most.”
Van lent admits that at the beginning of the season she would get a little nervous at the starting line. But by the finish line to her first year in cross country, the nerves were long gone. “I knew I was ready,” she says. “At the start line of a race I am thinking about how I am going to start my race. I’ve found that it’s really helpful to run in a pack with my teammates, so I’m thinking about how I need to stay close to Allison (senior Allison Mayer) so I don’t get separated by the crowd. It’s harder to race when you are focused on your time. You need to try to race other people and pass people, and then the fast times will come.”
Becca, 14, is the daughter of Colleen and Mike van Lent. She has sprinted out of the blocks in the classroom with a 4.0 GPA. She also plays field hockey and enjoys hanging out with friends and reading.
Van lent says the best advice she can pass along to young runners is “don’t give up.”
“Bad days are going to happen but that’s part of improvement,” she says. “Try to have fun; that makes it a lot easier.”
Van lent is clearly having fun – and it’s only just beginning.
