By Justin Felder - bio | email
MURRELLS INLET, SC (WMBF) - What's more challenging: Stopping a forward one-on-one or college level math?
"Definitely calculus, it's impossible," said WMBF News Athlete of the Week Kaitlyn Welden.
Welden is a senior on St. James' soccer team. She also has over a 5.0 GPA and is in line to become valedictorian of her class.
"My sister was salutatorian last year," said Welden. "I'm trying to live up to her and do well as I can. I've worked really hard in school, so hopefully I can pull it off at the end."
So she draws academic inspiration from her sister, but what about her athletic side?
"My mom runs marathons, so I grew up just watching her run," said Welden. She runs about two a year, so you can do the math. She does a lot. She's a really good role model, seeing her go out and run made me want to do it, too."
It should come as no surprise that Kaitlyn's latest accomplishment was tackling the Myrtle Beach Half Marathon. But Kaitlyn isn't just following examples. She's setting them.
"When kids who are younger see the older kids become self motivated, that sends a wonderful message," said Saint James soccer coach Lee Cannon. "If you know this is what she's done already, at 17 and under, I don't know what to say is going to happen in the future because the sky's the limit."
If she does get to be her school's valedictorian, there's no plans to rub it in to her sister.
"There's no use starting a rivalry over that kind of thing, so I'll just let it go," said Welden.
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