Out of all the athletes who play sports in high school, only about 2% of them move on to compete at the Division 1 collegiate level. Madison Carr, a cross country runner at Park City High School, is part of the 2%.

Carr began running the spring of her freshman year for the high school track team. Looking back at those years, she said, “I just wanted to get in shape and I thought it would be fun to be part of a team.”

Carr competed in her first state Cross Country meet her sophomore year of high school finishing with a time of 21:03, the 6th finisher for Park City’s team.

When junior year began, Carr was a new runner. Right off the bat, she finished with times a minute faster than her best times from her previous season. Coach Steve Cuttitta recalls seeing Madison race for the first time her junior year as, “nothing short of remarkable… she made an incredible jump from being a ‘middle of the pack runner’ to one of the elite in Utah.” With her consistent drops in time, it seemed like she would never stop peaking. When the next state meet began to near, it was anticipated that Carr would finish in the top 10, which would be a huge contribution to the team’s overall score. In cross country, the places of the top five finishers from each team are added together and the lowest score wins. If Carr could score under a 10 then the whole team’s score would be reduced.

Carr crossed the finish line at the Utah state meet in 4th place with a time of 19:01, a time that was over two minutes faster than what she had run the previous year on a very similar course.

In addition to her success throughout the cross country season, Carr’s other successes come from the UHSAA State Track and Field Championships where she finished 2nd in the 1600m(1 mile) and 3rd in the 3200m(2 miles) as a junior.

As a senior on the cross country team, Madison Carr looks at her sport in a different light from her freshman year.

Carr stated, “I’ve learned that running is my haven, and when I have something hard I can get through it and make running my escape.” She expressed that her day no longer feels complete without a run; the sport has become part of who she is.

Although Carr competed in her final UHSAA State Meet in October, her running career is just getting started. She is currently being recruited by sixteen colleges, thirteen of which are Division 1, including the University of Portland (ranked 5th in the nation) and Brigham Young University (ranked 15th in the nation). She is currently still undecided on which school she will attend in the fall of 2017, but she plans to sign with a Division 1 university this spring.  Carr knows she can compete with the fastest girls in all of Utah and Coach Cuttitta along with the Park City Cross Country team believe she will be a force to reckon with among the fastest runners in the nation.

Carr is excited for the opportunity to run collegiately, but also recognizes that it will be an adjustment. She states, “It [collegiate running] will be challenging and probably ten times harder, but it will be a good change.”

Madison Carr has become a role model to the entire girls cross country team at Park City High School not only because of her impressive times, but also for being a tremendous teammate and bringing her positive attitude to practice every single day.

Although Carr will graduate in the Summer of 2017, her legacy will live on in the Park City Cross Country team and remind the team “the secret [to running] is that even though it’s competitive, and it’s scary, and it’s putting yourself out there, you just need to remember why you started; because you love it.”