Whiz Kid: Runner Hannah Oneda Weighs in on Success

Hannah Oneda, a rising senior at Winters Mill High School, has become a mid-distance superstar. Patch asked her a few questions about where she's going and how she handles her success. 

1. What do you feel are your greatest accomplishments and why?

I think my "greatest" accomplishment, and pretty much my favorite, would be breaking 11 minutes for the indoor two-mile run and getting the Class 2A state record, because that was something I wanted to do all season long. All through practices and running in the snow, to keep myself going, I would think about how bad I wanted to break 11 minutes, and I did! So I was really happy. My two mile time was also in the top 10 fastest two mile times in the nation, and the second or third fastest out of juniors, so that was exciting!

2. What records have you broken and what are your times?

For cross country, I set a record at Mountain Run with a time of 18:53. And I also set a record for Regionals with a time of 17:20. At Scorpion Crawl I set a new record of 18:43. For indoor track, I set one-mile and two-mile records at the county championships, and again for Class 2A state championships (running a 5:07 mile and a 10:54 two mile.) In outdoor track I set the two-mile county record with a time of 11:10.

3. What are your plans for the future i.e. college, running, in general?

I'm looking at Georgetown, Yale, William and Mary, Villanova, Duke, Penn, Johns Hopkins, UVA, Virginia Tech, but I haven't really thought much about it yet—just looking!

4. What is your advice to incoming students who want to be involved in athletics?

Always have a goal in mind—it will keep you going! And team chemistry is a big thing. If you don't like your team, it'll be hard to get good and you will not enjoy yourself. Don't worry about "fitting in" with upperclassmen, do what you think is best for your sport and you'll better yourself in no time. And ... go hard or go home!