There’s a tradition of Division I talent moving through the Seymour girls cross country program.
On Wednesday afternoon, it continued as Seymour senior Makenna Sunbury signed her letter of intent to run at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis.
Joining 2018 Owl standout Ashton Chase, Sunbury is the yet another Seymour runner to sign with the Jaguars. For Sunbury, it was a fairly easy decision to make.
"There’s been runners from Seymour in the past that have signed with IUPUI and coach [Antonio] McDaniel is just an awesome coach," she said. "He really cares about the health of his runners and makes sure your academics are on track.
"I knew I wanted to continue running in college and, when given this opportunity, I knew I had to take it right away," she continued. "I m extremely excited."
Sunbury plans to major in neuroscience and said a heavy course load of biology, chemistry and a myriad of other sciences and math is going to be on the docket for her.
Heading up north to Indianapolis, Sunbury spoke about the larger size of the city compared to Seymour. Though she’ll miss that small town feel, she wanted to move on to a bigger community.
"It’s definitely a larger scale than small town Seymour and I wanted to step up in the world and into a bigger community," she said. "The campus is beautiful and, if you’re an athlete, they really make sure you stay on track with your academics. So, they have lots of tutors and lots of options to keep me on track."
Earlier in the year, Sunbury was able to go up and see the IUPUI campus, which is in the midst of downtown Indianapolis. While she fell in love with the school, it was the interactions with her soon-to-be teammates that made the decision even easier.
"I just saw how close they all were and you really felt like you were a part of a family whenever you were talking with all of them," she said. "They really look out for each other."
Sunbury had quite the senior cross country campaign, making it all the way to the Brown County semistate after finishing sixth at the Columbus regional. She has a good building block to work from in terms of her physical skill, but knows she’ll have to work on keeping a positive mental state when she starts competing in college.
"It’s just a matter of my mentality," she said. "You’re more mature when you go to college and so when you get to that level, it’s just personal strength and mentality. I’ll work on that, and in terms of the physical aspects, I’ll get into the weight room more, more mileage and I’ll be at more at that intense level."
Girls cross country coach, and father, Spencer Sunbury said he was proud of his daughter on taking the next step. He’s looking forward to having to juggle coaching next year’s team and going to see Makenna compete.