Peterson and Donnay Share Freshmen Experience

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College can be hard if you are just a freshman. It's especially hard if you are a student-athlete, having to balance school with practice, workouts and competition, along with having a social life. Having a teammate that they can relate to and rely on is key, but having that teammate as a roommate makes the transition from high school to college even easier. Freshmen Anna Donnay and Cailee Peterson were fortunate enough to find that their first year as Jackrabbit cross country runners.

"Having Anna as a roommate is awesome," Peterson explained. "It's great having someone with the same schedule and similar priorities as me. I think we definitely motivate each other both in practice and on the course, and even when it comes to getting our homework done. I don't know where I'd be this school year without her."

Anna agreed saying, "It helps a lot, being new and having someone to bond and talk about things with. We definitely motivate each other to get better, and we use our strengths to help each other out."

Motivation Both freshmen come from diverse backgrounds and have distinctive things that motivate them to run. Despite the differences, they both run to improve their previous time, and become the best they can be, setting their sights on conference championships and national meets.

Peterson's mother was her high school's head cross country coach her last two years at May-Port High School in Mayville, N.D.

"I started running because my mom received a medal from a 5k she ran and I wanted that medal, but my mom told me, 'If you want anything you have to work for it,'" Peterson said. "So I trained and ran the 5k the following year. I earned that medal and ended up falling in love with running."

While Peterson's been running for 11 years, Anna has been running since her sophomore year in at Kimball High School in Kimball, Minn., but that didn't stop her from finding her passion to run.

"I love to run, also, just the ability to run motivates me," Anna expressed. "There are people that aren't able to run so I don't take it for granted, even though some days seem terrible, the next day might not."

The Support The team traveled to the NDSU Open on September 1 in Fargo, N.D., which is about an hour north of Peterson's hometown of Mayville, N.D. Her mother planned a little surprise for her daughter that night.

"My mom brought the whole cross country team up for the meet, and then a couple of my friends actually go to NDSU came to cheer and watched me run," said Peterson. "It was awesome having them there, they definitely pushed me to do better and I feel like they are a good part of the reason why I was so successful. I am so grateful for them."

Donnay agreed with Peterson in having support while racing, "Both my parents want me to do the very best I can. I used to get nervous and anxious before meets, now I feel like my dad gets more nervous for it."

Adjusting to College Both Jackrabbit freshmen have had learning curves from high school to college.

"It's way different from high school where people on the team thought I was crazy for wanting to run so much," explained Anna. "Now at SDSU, the team, along with head coach Rod DeHaven, has the same passion as me to run so everyone is pushing each other to be better."

Peterson agreed, "The atmosphere is more competitive in college than high school because this is what people came to college to do. In high school, people did cross country to get into shape for another sport."

Strengths The freshmen's relationship is similar to the relationship of Anna's older sister, junior Emily Donnay, with fellow junior Rachel King. King likes to start out of the gate fast with Emily finishing strong just like in Anna and Peterson.

"In high school, I know I went out fast and I'm trying to work on saving some energy for the end," Anna stated. "Cailee likes to start strong as well, but at the end she loves to sprint, together we just get a feeling from each other and know what we need to do."

Getting Better As the roommates continue to build off their early success and work with each other's strengths, they both agree that improvement is one of their top priorities.

"I just relax and try to run my own race," Peterson said. "It might be scary at first, but you just have to go out there and give it your all and hope for good results at the end. The best part about being a freshman is you have 3 years to improve."

"I definitely want to continue to get better, and improve on my time each meet," Anna expressed. "Staying healthy is a big issue in this sport, with my sister, Emily, it's disappointing to see her unhealthy this year. Overall, I just want to stay healthy and try to improve week to week."