The News-Press selects athletes that stood out the week before based on a combination of coach reports and school nominations sent to [email protected] and our coverage. Those athletes are put in a poll each Monday on news-press.com and you, our readers, vote on who you think did it best. The winners of The News-Press Athlete of the Week poll receive a T-shirt from BSN Sports and a tote bag from the USA Today High School Sports Awards. To get to know our winners better, The News-Press will have a question-and-answer session with each athlete.
The News-Press Athlete of the Week winner for April 21-26 with 56% of the votes was Canterbury track athlete Joslyne De La Nuez. The junior took first place in the 200 meters and 100 hurdles at the Class 1A-District 12 meet.
Question: You won four medals at the state meet last year. What’s your expectation this year?
De La Nuez: You know working, persevering through a few injuries this year, I feel like we’ve had to kind of learn how to navigate through different obstacles, not being able to do long jump, not being able to compete in some of the events that I should be qualifying for, but just looking down the road for the long journey we’ll see, and hopefully next year, I’ll just be able to come back and not just qualify for two events and be better again.”
In the past, you have run sprints, hurdles, and the long jump. What’s your favorite event and why?
De La Nuez: I love hurdles. I get like an adrenaline rush more. I mean, I get super nervous for every single one of my races, but I think hurdles is just like somewhere it’s like anything could happen. A blink of an eye. I mean, I’ve been on the floor in a single step, but that just like makes me want to work harder and make sure, like, I’m just staying on top of it.”
By only running the 200 and 100 hurdles instead of four event, do you think that may help your chances of winning a state title?
De La Nuez: I hope. Hopefully, this year hurdles is the year to get a gold. So we’ll see what we bring back home. I’m excited. We’ll see. I mean, hopefully I just have a good race. Last year, I didn’t have the best hurdles coming off of long jump at states. But since I’m not doing long jump this this time around at states, hopefully I’ll be able to come back stronger.
Do you have any pre-meet rituals or superstitions?
De La Nuez: The night before, I have to have pasta. And like my ritual changes up. Like, if I have a bad race, I’ll have to change everything I did up that day. But if I had a good race, I like doing everything exactly the same. So like, from my hair to what I eat to everything.
You still have another year left, but what do you see in your future after Canterbury?
De La Nuez: I hope to go somewhere good for track reasons and just see where college takes me if I want to continue it, maybe the Olympics someday, or just study whatever I want to study for free.
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