Senior girls’ track and field captain Anna duSaire said she made the decision to attend Ohio Wesleyan University where she will also be running track.

duSaire said the small-school dynamics of Wesleyan’s track program made it very appealing to her.

“It’s a small school and so a relatively small team. I’m excited to be able to have a lot of one-on-one close work with the coach and be able to really develop my skills and really improve on my distances and really improve on my times,” duSaire said.

According to duSaire, the track coach at Wesleyan focuses on helping his athletes succeed beyond the track.

“The coach is really close with a lot of the athletes, and he really focuses on making sure the athlete is doing well in their personal life and is doing okay and treats them as a human before an athlete or as a student before an athlete, so I’m really excited for that atmosphere,” duSaire said.

Head track coach Richard Keith said duSaire’s relationships with her team members make her an effective captain.

“Anna is a great kid, so it’s not hard to be a captain when you’re well-liked and you are open-minded and willing to listen to others,” Keith said.

duSaire said although she knew she wanted to continue with track through college, it was not a deciding factor.

“I really knew I wanted to play sports or even run if I could in college, but it wasn’t a deal-breaker. I was definitely looking for schools where I would have the opportunity to run, but I also looked at a lot of other aspects because I knew that I’m not going to be able to run track forever, and I knew that if I really wanted to continue I would find ways to continue running and to continue competing in track even if it wasn’t at the varsity level,” duSaire said.

According to duSaire, Wesleyan’s higher level of student activism and involvement influenced her decision.

“I’m really interested in law and politics and social justice, and (Wesleyan) has really good programs for that and a lot of student activism and student involvement, so I’m excited to be able to be involved with that and really focus in on what I want to do with my life,” duSaire said.

According to Keith, duSaire’s skills as a captain and an athlete will serve her well as she prepares to compete at a collegiate level.

“I think she’ll be fine. She’s a pretty adaptable kid. She’s an athlete, a multi-event athlete, so she can sprint, she can jump and she’s very personable, so I don’t think her transition is going to be as difficult as somebody who doesn’t have all those given attributes,” Keith said.