Stuart Milner and Nina Penner didn’t settle for the status quo when they were at Mountlake Terrace High School.
The two, who were named the school’s athletes of the year, continually strove to challenge themselves.
So it comes as no surprise that both will continue to push themselves as they prepare for college.
Milner’s senior year of track and field was pivotal in helping him to determine his future. A new jump coach, Anthony Williams, persuaded Milner to try a new event: the triple jump.
As a junior, Milner competed in the long and high jumps and ran the 800-meter race and the 1,600 relay. He didn’t have the time or inclination for the triple jump. But in his first and only season of triple jumping, Milner surprised just about everyone with his success. He was the top 3A District 1 triple jumper during the regular season. Milner finished third at the district meet, just missing out on a state berth.
Milner credits Williams with making a huge difference in his life.
“He was the one that pushed me to levels I didn’t think I could go,” said Milner, who also played tennis. “I didn’t think I could get that good that quick. He helped me and made me believe in myself. It showed in the results.”
At the district meet, Milner led the field through the preliminaries. In the finals, two rivals passed Milner on their final jump, and the guy who knocked him out of state did it on the last jump of the meet.
Some of the sting was lessened by Milner’s knowledge that the athletes who finished ahead of him had been triple jumping for most of their high school careers.
“I only had a year,” Milner said. “I was really just pleased with how I did this year. I’m not going to say I was happy because I was obviously very mad that I didn’t make it to state. My coach really helped me work through it and look at the positive.”
Milner had originally decided he would go to the University of Puget Sound for track and field and tennis, but then he received a call from the University of Portland. He visited the campus and changed his mind; Milner is now enrolled at Portland, a Division I school, where he will compete in track.
Puget Sound is Division II, which factored into his decision making.
“I wanted to go someplace where I wasn’t going to be the top jumper,” Milner said. “At Puget Sound I was going to be the top jumper. I wanted to be at a place where I was going to be challenged, not just the first year, the second year, but all four years. I don’t want to have anything come easy. I want to jump the greatest distance I possibly can and be challenged to my full potential.”
Milner has equally ambitious career plans. He plans to study pre-med and eventually wants to become a plastic cranial facial surgeon, specializing in cleft palate surgery. Milner hopes to join Operation Smile, a worldwide charitable organization that offers treatment for children who have a cleft lip or palate.
He’s had that goal for about 10 years.
Milner became interested in the career when he met a friend who had been treated for a cleft palate.
In the fifth grade, Milner wrote an essay on the profession he was interested in: medicine. He spent hours researching the subject and discovered Operation Smile.
“I’ve just continually kept up with Operation Smile throughout the years and I’ve never had one thought that I didn’t want to do that anymore,” Milner said.
Nina Penner faced a major question as she entered her senior year of track. She was coming off what she considered to be a disappointing junior season. Her main event was the 800-meter race, but Penner was questioning her abilities.
“I wasn’t so great at the 800-meter race my junior year,” she said. “I thought I kind of lost it a little bit, but I found it again my senior year.”
Penner ended up running the second fastest time in the 800 during the regular season and placed second at the 3A District 1 championships; only the top two finishers advanced to the state meet.
Penner cemented her status as one of Mountlake Terrace High School’s all-time top female athletes by earning her fourth straight trip to the state track and field championships.
When she was trying to get her “mojo” back at the start of the season, Penner thought to herself, “If I don’t have it, I don’t have it. Go out and have some fun.”
The district meet took a lot out of Penner and she ended up running only in the preliminaries at the state meet.
“(State) was already an accomplishment,” Penner said. “It was so hard to get to state this year. It kind of took the fight out of me before state. I already felt like I had my state meet. It was just so competitive just to get to state.”
Penner likes the fact that in track, only you are responsible for your performance.
“You can control what you do out there,” Penner said. “It’s all up to you. It’s not dependent on if somebody passes you the ball or somebody made a bad pitch or something.”
Penner, who will run track at Everett Community College, is looking forward to testing herself again.
“I definitely wanted more than just to compete,” she said. “I wanted to get the college running experience and just kind of check it out and see if I want to keep doing this for the next couple of years.”
Regardless of what happens at Everett, Penner likely will continue running. It brings her comfort.
“There’s that feeling when, after like about a mile or so, I feel I can run forever,” she said. “It’s just calming and relaxing. I feel great.”
Penner has interests in two areas: teaching and computer programming (her father is a computer programmer).
A highlight from high school was Penner’s coaching staff and her teammates.
“They were really supportive,” Penner said. “We all grew really close. We’re more than a team. We’re more like a family.”
Penner eventually would like to help other athletes at Mountlake Terrace.
“I want to come back and coach for sure,” she said.
Read about athletes of the year at other Edmonds district high schools in The Weekly Herald Sports section.
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