The Peru native, Daniella Godenzi, majors in International Business and Management here at Stetson. This is her last season on the Cross Country team.
What attracted you to Stetson and the Cross Country Team?
Godenzi: Stetson provided my desired major and provided me with the opportunity to participate in something I am passionate about, running. I came to Hatter Saturday and met many great people who I am still good friends with now. I felt welcomed and a like I was in a very energetic place.Picturing myself being not only a student athlete, but a D1 athlete, was so great. I also love being on a team and didn’t want to lose that since I have always played sports and been part of a team.
How has the team changed or evolved in your 4 years here?
G: Our program has gotten stronger year after year, and I believe that it’ll keep doing so. The intensity has kept increasing, as well as the discipline and commitment from everyone.
I saw that you and your teammate Laurie Scott both ran a personal-best time at the USF Invitational. Describe what you have to go through in training and on the day of the meet in order to keep breaking your record.
G: My time on our past meet was actually not my all time pr. I PR’ed my freshman year of college. The time on our past meet was my fastest one this season though. We all keep getting faster and improving, trying to get as best as we can for conference. In order to keep improving, we have to keep running as a priority. We have to stay strong mentally and physically. There are no days when we can slack, especially by being so close to our biggest race of the season, conference. Everyone works hard and encourages each other everyday.During race days, we just have to push through the pain and try to be as close to the front of the race as possible. Being at the start line of a race is always nerve-wracking, but all of us know that our hard work will show and that the pain will only be around 20 minutes for the girls. Also knowing that our times and places depend on how our team does as a whole encourages everyone to push even harder. We do this for ourselves and for one another.
The team has the A-Sun championships coming soon. How do you expect the team to do?
G: We had a chance to race on the conference course at the beginning season. Now we know how to race it and we know what to expect. That will definitely help a lot. I believe that we have a great chance of doing really well at conference. Our times have kept improving throughout the season, and all of us have the desire to beat as many teams as possible and to have better results than the previous years. I am excited to see how we do!