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By Drew Lawson
The Times 

Lundgren finds her place on cross country team

 

Last updated 4/8/2021 at 2:30pm

Drew Lawson | The Times

Reardan freshman Kerstin Lundgren heads toward the finish line at a meet March 13.

REARDAN – Like many high school students, Kerstin Lundgren enjoys running with her friends on the cross country team, plays the flute, wants to travel the world after high school and was able to finish every race this season. However, Lundgren had to and will have to overcome an unusual hurdle to achieve these goals.

The freshman at Reardan High School is hard of hearing and wears hearing aids.

"I can hear just fine without hearing aids, but my ears take everything in all at once, so I have hearing aids to help channel me in," Lundgren said.

The partial loss of hearing was borne from Lundgren's experience with medicine she took while treating her cancer at the age of two, meaning she doesn't have a memory of a life without having to wear hearing aids.

"In order to save my life from the cancer, I had to take medicine, and the medicine in the process took some of my hearing cells, so I had to get hearing aids," Lundgren said.

The need to wear hearing aids does create some challenges for Lundgren, which are often related to conversation.

"Someone can be talking to me, and I'm having to say 'what?' seven times," Lundgren said. "It's a daily challenge, and it kinda has been, but I have to be careful to hear what (people) are saying."

"I'm like a detective every day. I get to figure out what people mean by their context...someone could be saying 'two' instead of 'who,' and I have to think of their context."

After living in Vancouver, Washington, attending Fircrest Elementary School and learning American sign language, Lundgren moved to Reardan. In sixth grade, she decided to join the middle school cross country team. She's competed every year since, saying she loves the team atmosphere of the sport.

"I wanted to try something new, and so I just said, 'well I'm not really doing volleyball so I might as well do cross country,' because a couple people recommended it," Lundgren said. "I love the team. The people there, the coaches, it doesn't matter who they are. They're very encouraging."

Lundgren, who finished all races this season in the 20s or 30s, hopes to be in the 10-20 range for finishes by the time she's a senior.

"For the team, I think we can aim for the top 10, because we've got some very fast runners," she said. "We do get stuff done."

While her hearing condition causes some daily hardships, it doesn't affect her running very much, Lundgren said.

"I think it actually helps, because I can hear cars better," Lundgren said. "When I hear something coming, I can tell how close they are behind me...but it can also get kind of hard with the wind, depending on which way it's blowing. It's difficult, yes, but not as difficult as some people would think."

This year, in her first year at the high school, Lundgren showed improvement in every race, according to head coach Tyler Smedley.

"She was always willing to put in the work to be able to improve. It's hard to run cross country as a freshman, because you're in the same race as the seniors who've been doing this a lot longer. Smedley said. "I think she showed a lot of heart, a lot of commitment to...finish every race and to really improve over the course of the season. I'm very proud of her."

Author Bio

Drew Lawson, Editor

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Drew Lawson is the editor of the Davenport Times. He is a graduate of Eastern Washington University.

 

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