Whether soaring over hurdles on the track or doing flips through the air in the gym, GlenOak High School senior Aanika Sommers is well acquainted with defying gravity. The 18 year old standout has quickly become a very valuable asset to GlenOak’s track team due to her placement in each and every meet.
Sommers does the 100 meter hurdles, 4X100 meter relay, 4X200 meter relay, and the 300 meter hurdles. Sommers is the #1 female hurdler for GlenOak. She also was a member of the gymnastics team this season.
“I have always been a hurdler, I started off with it right off the bat,” Sommers said. “My younger brother Canaan was the person who encouraged me to start running. He was always involved in the sport and thought that I should join too. I was reluctant at first but he had convinced me to do it right before my freshman year.”
At the Austintown Fitch meet, Sommers opened the season with a time of 15.37 in the 100 meter hurdles. By doing this she had set the new meet record but in spite of this accomplishment, she had still not reached her personal best of 15.22. Along with Sommers performance, she was recently elected athlete of the week.
“My goal for the end of the season is to beat the current school record for the 100 meter hurdles, and to qualify to the state meet in this event,” Sommers said.
“When I set the Fitch meet record, I felt both surprised and proud. It was the first meet of this year, and I honestly wasn’t expecting it at all. This was a perfect start to my senior year, and it boosted my confidence for my performances for the rest of this season,” Sommers said.
Sommers is a dual sport athlete and while she performs well on the track, she does the same in the gym.
“Besides track, I am also involved in gymnastics. I’ve been in gymnastics for about nine years, and I’m still currently doing it. I have been a participant for seven years with the local YMCA team, and I also competed with GlenOak for my senior year,” Sommers said.
Sommers does track and gymnastics within the same season and managed to qualify to nationals for gymnastics every year.
“It can be difficult to manage both sports, having a three hour practice after track causes me to have some long days. I also miss track meets for gymnastics and vice versa which also makes it difficult,” Sommers said.
Many dual sport athletes do not give as much effort to one sport as they do the other, Sommers differs from the rest and gives full effort in each sport to ensure success.
“At gymnastics we usually do conditioning and weight training which helps me gain strength and stay in shape for track which helps especially before track even begins,” Sommers said.
While gymnastics gives Sommers many advantages, so does being a track athlete.
“Track has taught me to believe in myself, and helped me to create a healthy routine. This helps my everyday life because I can apply what I’ve learned from track to everyday situations. What I love most about track is all of the opportunities it gives me. It allows me to learn more about the sport itself, but I am also able to make friendships and connections with the people I run with,” Sommers said.
While Sommers has had much time to develop many experiences with teammates and coaches throughout her career, she has had a lot of influence from the coaches on her running.
“What I like most about the coaching is how they use their knowledge about this sport and implement it into the athletes. In doing so, they also create relationships past just running, being able to talk about things during practice, making it a great space to be in,” Sommers said.
As Sommers high school career comes to an end, she wants to leave everyone with some advice for the future.
Sommers plans to attend Ohio University after her career comes to an end to major in education with hopes of becoming an elementary school teacher.
