Ava Boyd to run at University of Illinois
By FRED KRONER
Halfway through her high school career in cross-country and track and field, Ava Boyd realized that her performances weren’t lined up with her goals and expectations.
The Mahomet-Seymour athlete was a good runner, but not one who had yet developed into a “can’t-miss” prospect that would make her a priority recruit for any of the Division I universities of her dreams.
Her junior year with the Bulldogs was the turning point. Boyd recognized it took more than wanting it to happen. She had to make it happen.
What she considered a low point evolved into a time for new beginnings as she headed in a different direction with her training.
“After having a difficult junior cross-country season, I felt a little hopeless and discouraged about my dream of competing at the collegiate level,” Boyd said, “but once I joined the Vipers Track Club, shortly after cross-country state (in November, 2022), I told Coach Marques Lowe of competing in college and he said to me, ‘It’s gonna take a lot of work Ava, but you can probably do it.’
“This quote meant more to me than Coach Lowe probably meant it to, but it was the fact that I had a new coach who barely knew me that already believed in me more than I did in myself, and saw the potential of all I could accomplish that I couldn’t see for the months to come.”
Turns out Lowe was spot on.
Less than a year later, Boyd has signed a letter of intent to continue her running career at the University of Illinois.
She is glad to have her decision finalized.
“The recruiting process was honestly so much harder than I anticipated,” Boyd said. “The mental battle of it is the hardest part since it’s just a waiting game filled with emails and phone calls to coaches.
“And, lots and lots of recruiting questionnaires. However, it was all worth it in the end.”
Boyd’s resume now includes a national title in the 1,500 meters from July, 2023 at the USATF National Junior Olympics Championships in Eugene, Ore., in the girls’ 17-18 age division.
Her time was a personal-best 4 minutes, 46.22 seconds in her first appearance at the outdoor nationals.
“When you come in with doubts, you will always have doubts in the back of your head, but we pushed her to go forward,” Lowe said. “Her winning the national championship catapulted her to another level of success.”
Boyd was not only successful on the track but also in preventing doubts or uncertainties from destroying her quest.
“Over the course of my junior year, I had many opportunities to give up on myself or to not push through some of the harder days,” Boyd said, “but I never let a challenge get the best of me and always persevered.”
Boyd placed fourth in the IHSA girls’ track and field state meet in May, 2023, in the Class 2A 1,600 meters (5:07.64) in her first appearance at the state finals.
“The biggest key to my development would be Coach Marques Lowe and Coach Sarah Ganster (Vipers’ assistant),” Boyd said. “Both of them believed in me so much, which I didn’t really understand when I first started training with them since they didn’t really know me all too well, but the fact that they had so much faith in me really pushed me to prove them right and grew my self-confidence.
“When I was training with the Vipers over the winter, I was amazed by how much talent was filled by so many different athletes in different events which drove me to work hard because I wanted to show others and myself that I could be great, too.
“Looking back, I believe all that was able to happen because of a combination of my work ethic, my trust in Coach Lowe and Coach G, and using a disheartening (junior cross-country) season to my advantage.”
Boyd’s connection with the Champaign-based Vipers Track Club came through a high school friend and teammate, sophomore sprinter Mady Marx.
“She is one of the most incredible runners I have met and seeing her excel in this program made me want to be a part of it, too,” Boyd said. “Coach Lowe, Coach Ganster, and I have such a trusting relationship, which is another key to my development because anything they think I should, I’ll do and the results that the three of us want follows.
“When you have coaches that you’re able to trust without a doubt in your mind, it leads to truly incredible accomplishments.”
From Lowe’s perspective, there’s a two-way street that must be navigated concerning the aspect of trust.
“She was looking for a change of pace,” Lowe said. “She fully trusted everything that me and Coach G (Ganster) put into her.
“Her work ethic was unmatched, and she was in an environment where she could push herself. She is so self-motivated and never strayed away.”
Among the universities most interested in Boyd were Southeast Missouri State and the University of Miami (Fla.), but the offer from the Illini was one she couldn’t decline.
“After attending my official visit at the University of Illinois, it felt like an easy decision,” Boyd said. “Everything that I wanted, both academically and athletically, was at Illinois, as well as I was given an opportunity to be coached by Coach Helen Lehman-Winters and Coach Petros Kyprianou, two of the best coaches in the country, which was an offer I simply couldn’t pass up.”
Boyd plans to major in business management and financing, while minoring in Spanish.
“In 10 years, I would hope to see myself as a successful hedge funder,” she said.
While Lowe saw potential in Boyd from the time she joined the Vipers 12 months ago, the swift timetable of her progression is not what he envisioned.
“We knew she would be special and one-of-a-kind,” Lowe said, “but she is one of the fastest-rising Vipers I’ve had in my 14 years.
“Mentally, she is one of the strongest I’ve ever had the pleasure of coaching. Her parents did a great job raising her.”
Boyd’s training partners with the Vipers consist of other All-State-caliber runners, but providing stiff competition was only a part of the equation, according to Lowe.
“We had to change her running style,” he said. “Once we accomplished that, she took off and became the athlete she thought she could be.”
After eight days off following the recent IHSA cross-country state meet, Boyd returned to track practice on Monday (Nov. 13) with the Vipers.
She will work out with the club team three or four days a week until she rejoins the M-S program for the high school indoor season in February, 2024.
Boyd, Marx and the Bulldogs could all be in line for some hardware at the Class 2A outdoor state meet in May, but Boyd is preparing for her final high school season as well as the start of her collegiate career.
“I think that I am going to fit in very well during the ‘24 – ‘25 school year with the (UI) team,” Boyd said. “There are a couple of committed recruits who are around the same times as I am to train with, in which I am eager to get started.”
The collegiate distance for women in cross-country varies between 5-kilometer and 6-kilometer courses. In track, she hopes to specialize in the 1,500- or 1,600-meter races “because it’s the event that I enjoy the most, and the event that I race the best in.”
Boyd’s running career got its start in 2016.
“I technically started running in fifth grade when I joined the Girls on the Run club at my elementary school (Lincoln Trail), but at that time I hated running,” she said. “Sixth-grade is when I joined the Mahomet Seymour Junior High cross-country team (coached by Lisa Martin), which is where I found my passion for running.
“My very first race was a cross-country meet where I ran 1 mile and ended up winning.”
She was the Bulldogs’ top runner as both a seventh- and eighth-grader.
Her attitude about running no longer matches the thoughts she had as a sixth-grader.
“I kept with the sport throughout the last seven years because of how much I enjoy running and the environment that comes with it,” Boyd said. “The biggest appeal of cross-country and track would most likely be the workouts and looking forward to all the exciting races.
“It might sound crazy, but I honestly love a hard workout, after the running is done of course, because of how accomplished and proud I feel afterwards. And that feeling carries over into post meet PRs which is the best to celebrate with your teammates.”
Besides the 3-mile courses which are the norm in high school cross-country, Boyd has run everything from 800 meters to 3,200 meters on the track.
While in elementary school, Boyd played soccer, but was developing a penchant for distance running.
“I always admired runners and their strength to do such a grueling sport,” she said.
Boyd is confident that she can continue to lower her times.
“There’s always room for growth and improvement in running,” she said, “and I believe that under the Illini coaches I’m going to accomplish and improve more than I think I can now.
“I’ve always liked being the underdog in my races and letting my results do the proving for me. I think at the collegiate level, being a younger runner and starting over in a sense will push me to new limits and grow my work ethic even more.”
Moving less than 15 miles from her home for college will be advantageous, Boyd believes.
“The fact that I’m staying closer to home is honestly going to make the transition smoother than most freshmen would experience,” Boyd said. “Knowing that my mom or dad are only a phone call away is a really great thing to have in the back of my mind.
“My parents, sister and I are all very close, too, so when I decided on Illinois my mom was over the moon happy because she was already having a difficult time accepting the fact that I was eventually leaving.”
