Nicole Peterson ’25 and Nina Peterson ’25 both run track, qualified for, and ran at the state track meet this season. Nicole ran the 3k, and Nina ran the 3k and the 1500. Unfortunately, Nina was injured right before districts but was told that as long as she biked instead of the running workouts that she had been doing, she could likely run at Districts and State.

“I biked religiously,” Nina said. “I only raced at Districts and State and didn’t run besides that.”

It turns out she had grade 4 stress fractures in both of her tibias. Despite this, she managed to still run at State, where although she wasn’t happy with her 3k performance, she was only one second off of her 1500 personal record. Meanwhile, Nicole secured 12th place in the 3k.

“I was happy with it,” Nicole said. “Not necessarily [with] my time, but with my place, which at State is a lot more important.”

Securing a spot at State didn’t come easily for the Petersons. They focused on training consistently throughout the year and taking care of themselves.

“Honestly, we’ve kind of had our sights set on state ever since last year,” Nicole said. “Freshman year had a lot of discovery of our abilities and what the training that we put in previously meant for our season and our future.”

But they hadn’t always been so ambitious. The Petersons started running in 7th grade when a friend signed them up for cross country. It took them a while to warm up to running, although they immediately loved the team aspect of it.

“I started liking [running] probably during Polar Bear Club, which was after the cross country season in 7th grade,” Nina said. “I was just better at that point, having more experiences with running, and the hot chocolate didn’t hurt either.”

Both Nina and Nicole loved seeing all the talented athletes competing at State and learning from them too.

“It’s great to see all the different events and all the different great athletes doing multiple races and seeing what their fortes are,” Nicole said.

“Just seeing everyone across the state, competing at such a high level and watching events that you don’t normally get to watch, it’s just exhilarating to watch all the track happening,” Nina said.