For The Tribune

Abbilynn Ebler played golf her freshmen and sophomore years at Seymour, but she wasn’t having as much fun hitting the little white ball as she had hoped for.

“I wanted to do something more athletic, and they convinced me to join the (cross-country) team and I loved it,” she said.

Ebler admits that it was hard to learn how to run 3.1 miles at the beginning of her junior season, but she worked hard to improve her time and received the most improved award at the end of the season.

“It takes a lot of practice, and it’s building the mileage up, and also knowing what pace you can run three miles at is a lot different,” she said. “It’s pretty tough

“A lot of runners try to pace themselves, but I like to go faster the first mile, and at the beginning I always liked to get ahead. That way I can only move down from there, so if I started off really quick, faster than my pace, it helped me get through it.”

She said her career-best time was a 22:27 her junior year at Silver Creek.

This year she was in Seymour’s top-10 throughout the season and got to run in the Seymour Invitational and in the Hoosier Hills Conference meet.

“I was on a really good team; it was a great feeling,” Ebler said.

The senior took part in the summer workouts in preparation for the fall season the past two years.

Ebler said you have to have a positive outlook in all sports, especially cross-country.

“It’s such a mental sport,” she said. “I don’t think people realize how challenging it is,” she said. “If you don’t have the right mindset you’re just not going to be able to run a good race or even finish it, maybe.”

One of Ebler’s favorite parts of running was competing on different courses.

“Running those courses were a lot of fun, and in practices we got to go different ways every day,” Ebler said. “It keeps it interesting. We all have watches and those tell us how many miles we run and (Coach Spencer Sunbury) told us how many miles to get in.”

The Owls ran some races in late afternoon and some races on Saturdays.

“I liked the Saturday races,” Ebler said. “After school it was just so hot and it was rough. Running in the heat was tough because you don’t have water while you’re running.”

Ebler said she looks forward to running in the future.

“I’m so happy that I made the decision to run,” she said. “I love my teammates, I love the coach. It’s really fun.”

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Name: Abbilynn Ebler

School: Seymour High School

Parents: Dan and Sabrina Ebler

Siblings: Jenna, Rylee

Sports: Cross-country, two years; golf, two years

Athletic highlights: Cross-country, 2015 most improved

Organizations: Choir, youth at Central Christian Church

Plans after high school: Attend Indiana University

Favorite food: ice cream

Favorite TV show: “The Office”

Favorite team: Indiana University

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