Running integral part of Ponce’s life

MILL CREEK

During her freshman year at Jackson High School, Alison Ponce decided to go out for track, partly because a friend thought she would be good at distance running.

It probably was the one of the best decisions Ponce has made in her life.

The Jackson standout has excelled in both cross country and track through the years, earning first team, all-Western Conference honors in both cross country and track her junior year. Ponce is the defending league champion in the 1,600- and 3,200-meter races. Ponce is the two-time league champ in the latter event. She also advanced to the state cross country meet as a junior.

The success Ponce has experienced is only a part of the reason why running has become so important to her.

In many ways, running has been the central focus of Ponce’s life.

“I feel it kind of prepares me for everything else in life,” she said. “I like the fact I have a group of people that have my back. I rely on them to help me out. They’re always there for me.”

Ultimately, what drew Ponce to the sport and kept her running were the people.

“The people are a lot of fun,” she said. “Even if running isn’t (people’s) thing, they still have fun with the whole social part of it.”

Ponce, who was selected as a captain of the girls cross country team, and her teammates have kept busy this summer with a variety of activities, including a running camp, a camping trip, a car wash fundraiser and daily workouts. Then there are the movie nights, game nights, dinners and beach volleyball games.

“I do everything with my teammates,” Ponce said.

Ponce is extremely competitive when she runs with her teammates.

“I really rely on my teammates that are closest to me timewise,” Ponce said. “They’re like the people who push me to do better. … Sometimes there’s competitiveness. That’s a good thing. That makes us better runners. I rely on them to help me improve. Maybe I help them improve.”

Ponce took a couple weeks off when school was over last spring, but then it was back to training. For much of the summer Ponce and her teammates met at 8 a.m. to do some light weight lifting and then they went out on a six to eight mile run.

As a captain, Ponce made sure she was there for most of the workouts and kept her teammates informed of when they were meeting.

“I tried to get people to be consistent,” Ponce said.

Ponce rarely misses a workout.

“I know I should be running. I feel guilty,” Ponce said. “For me, I put 100 percent into my workouts because I know it will pay off in the end.”

Ponce is looking to book a return trip to the state cross country meet last year, where she finished 73rd overall with a time of 20 minutes, 45 seconds.

“I really want the team to go to state instead of going individually,” Ponce said. “Individually, my goals are to get an 18.50 and place pretty high, top five in districts and get to state.”

Jackson returns six of its top seven runners and the participation in the summer workouts has been high.

“We have a pretty good core group,” Ponce said. “We are pretty determined. We’re all on the same page. I think we’re ready to challenge ourselves and really prepared to come into the season pretty strong.”