Senior year is often viewed as the year to make final high school accomplishments and to go out with a bang. Tanner Kaufman is taking that to a new level, breaking records left and right.
Tanner has attended Frederick High School all four years of high school and has been involved in sports for the entirety of it. He first joined track and field his freshman year where he competed in the 200m and 400m dash.
In the fall of his Junior year, Tanner started making a shift towards distance. That year, Tanner joined cross country (XC) as well, saying that, “I was kinda like put into it, distance [in track and field], and they encouraged me to do cross country.”
Currently, when in season, he competes in the 400m, 800m, and 1600m events.
Back in the spring of his junior year, Tanner started breaking records. The first record that he broke was the 800m record which was previously set at 1:59, but Tanner ran it just under with a time of 1:58.
Tanner continued this trajectory when he broke yet another record in September of this year, but this time in XC. Tanner beat the 10 year old record set by former FHS student, Chris Erwin who ran the 5k in 16:35. Tanner set the new record at an astounding 16:32.
In an interview with Tanner, he said that his favorite part about XC is, “probably just the racing aspect of it…also the training of it, like, just having fun runs with my team.”
In other XC races so far this season, Tanner has also had stunning results, already having placed in two of them.
With four races left, regionals, and potentially state, Tanner aims to keep up his momentum as he continues to make his senior seasons something to remember. He also plans on doing track again in the spring.
When asked about his post secondary career, Tanner said, “I am planning on running in college.” Currently, he does not know where he will attend, but is looking into schools such as Metro Denver.
While he is undecided on where he wants to attend, Tanner plans on majoring in Pre-med. Currently, he is working towards this goal through his work in a class focused on biomedical engineering.
Outside of school, track and field, and XC, Tanner enjoys other sports such as snowboarding and skiing. “I [also] do some dirt biking, not really in the [XC and Track] season though, just so I don’t get injured.”
Senior year is the last year that students can take advantage of the high school experience whether it be through academics, sports, clubs, and everything in between. Tanner Kaufman is taking full advantage as he continues to break records, make memories with his teams, and finish his high school career with a bang.
