Not many students, if any, have represented Menchville better over the past four years than senior Thomas Young. Young has been a member of the cross country and track teams at Menchville since his 8th-grade year, is the commander of the Junior Air Force Reserve Officer’s Training Corps (JROTC), the President of Model UN, an avid member of the student body and in the top six in his class. Although these are all very impressive, he still did not have the most exclusive accolade: being featured on the “Lion’s Roar”. In order to change that, we sat down with Young and asked him a few questions about what it’s has been like to be a student-athlete at Menchville.

Young was introduced to cross country and track by his older brother, Hunter, who was a runner at Menchville. At first, Thomas was not thrilled at the proposition of running, but was, “stuck for life” after meeting the phenomenal coaches and teammates. To this day, Young is still not thrilled about the running aspect of track and cross country, but does believe that the shared pain of running is something that he and his teammates have been able to bond over. Young claims that shared pain in practices is also the thing that gets him best prepared for a race, along with plenty of hydration and the right amount of food. Young’s favorite part about a race is cheering on his teammates, as he credits those memories as some of his fondest memories in his time as a runner.

Although Young has been a successful runner at Menchville, he does not plan to continue running in college other than on a recreational level. And even if he is not running, Young will still be working hard these next four years as he has been appointed to the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs!

To close out the interview, Young answered some rapid-fire questions about his interests outside of cross country and track.

If you played another sport at Menchville, what would it be?

I’d have to say soccer, because I played rec soccer back in elementary school and that was a lot of fun. Even though I actively tried to avoid getting the ball.

Besides running, what do you like to do in your free time?

What free time? A lot of it is dedicated to other extra curriculars such as ROTC, Model UN and the Student Government. I really love to be involved in the school.

What is a hidden talent you have?

I can wiggle my ears.

What is one place you wish you could visit?

I’d like to visit Outer Space.

What reality show do you think you would be good on?

Amazing Race or a British show called Taskmaster. Taskmaster is this very strange British show where these comedians do these weird tasks in competition against each other, and when I sit there watching it I always think, “Why don’t they do it that way? Clearly that would be better.”

If you would like to support Thomas and his teammates on the track team, make sure to come out to their meet on Thursday, May 13th at Todd Stadium!