The Durham Academy senior has been running great times since middle school, but she still has goals to achieve.
Who better to put in the Senior Spotlight this week than the runner with a serious chance to earn her fourth consecutive state title? In truth, Eliza Dekker hit the running scene in North Carolina during her 8th-grade year, when she ran 2:16 for the 800 during summer competition. She had finished 4th in the NCISAA 3A State Meet the previous fall, but she followed up her track breakthrough with a cross country individual title in the fall of 2011, and she hasn't stopped winning state meets since then! Eliza is special for more than just her running, though - she is known to athletes in both private and public schools for her positive and supportive approach to all her competitors. She runs hard on the course, and she'll put out maximum effort to beat you during the race, but before and after she is one of the nicest people you could ever hope to know, and it's clear from her interactions with opponents that she has formed some lasting friendships with runners that others might only consider to be rivals. I get the sense that Eliza has a few more big performances in her before she moves on to the college level, and I know that she would like to take a run at becoming only the 3rd North Carolina girl ever to break 2:10 in the 800!
