Class of 2016: Running to the future

Sarah’s Perez’s first foray into cross-country running didn’t exactly produce a result worthy of the scrapbook.

“I was second to last on the team,” the Whitefish High School senior said. “I stayed in that position my whole freshman year.”

But her coach, Sarah Brist, knew that inside Perez’s slender build there was a serious runner waiting to break out.

“She just didn’t know how to race,” Brist said. “But I knew she could go faster.”

Finally, something clicked for Perez at the Mountain West meet in Missoula. She found another gear and moved out of the back of the pack.

“We’re watching her and all of a sudden she starts passing people,” Brist said. “She figured out how to race!”

That lit a fire in Perez. She dedicated herself to running that summer and made varsity her sophomore season.

“And she just continued to keep getting better and better,” Brist said.

Her senior year, Perez earned All-State honors and helped lead the Lady Bulldogs to a second place result at the State A meet.

“That was one of my proudest achievements of my high school career,” Perez said. “Cross-country has been one of the most important things in my life.”

Brist praises Perez as an exemplary leader on the team and in the classroom.

“The last couple of summers we ran together quite a bit,” Brist said. “We got to know each other well. She is really quiet, but she’s a great team leader and an example of what you want from a student athlete.”

Perez will graduate this week with the Class of 2016. She plans to attend Duke University in North Carolina where she will study either pre-medicine or business.

She’s always been fascinated with medicine and diseases, but business is in her DNA.

“My grandfather was a CEO of a company and my father runs a business in Whitefish,” she said.

Perez herself already has dabbled in the business sector. She, along with students Emma Claire Spring and Matthew Perez, founded the Appleholics candied apple company her junior year as part of the Young Entrepreneurs Academy. They received a $1,000 seed investment to help launch the business and sold the gourmet apples online and at the Whitefish Farmers Market.

Perez also has participated in National Honor Society, Key Club, HOSA and was on the Lady Bulldog swim team.

In noting the extraordinary achievements of the Class of 2016, she says her fellow classmates have always pushed each other to be better.

“To be surrounded by so many people who are so driven has pushed me to want to achieve more and keep up,” Perez said. “It’s been a huge motivating factor in trying to do my best. It’s also been nice to be around people who care as much about reaching for success and trying hard.”

“I’m really curious to see what they do in life. I know they’re going to do great things.”

She appreciates all that Whitefish High School has given her, but says she’s ready to get to Duke and start a new chapter.

“I think this is a great school and I’m happy to have been here,” she said. “The teachers are great and it’s a small enough class that you build a bond. I’ve grown up with most of these kids. But I really do want to go experience something different and see what else the world has to offer.”

“Duke is one of the farthest places from here that I could choose, so that was actually an appeal to me.”

She’ll miss some things, of course, like friends and family. But the cold winters? Not so much.

“I’m really looking forward to the warm weather,” she said, smiling.

Before heading off to college, Perez plans to travel for six weeks in Peru, where her father is from, visiting Lima and Cuzco.