Junior Olivia Lund is running cross country and playing Lacrosse for Hamilton Southeastern. She is also taking part in travel soccer through Indy Premier.

Out of these three sports, Lund has played soccer the longest.

“[Soccer] is just a sport I’ve always played. When I was young, my parents enrolled me into it and I’ve just kept up with it. Even though I don’t play for the high school team, a lot of people on my travel team play for the high school.”

Lund started cross country in fifth grade and after taking her freshman year off, she has rejoined the team for the last two seasons. Lund says her favorite part of cross country is finishing the race.

“There’s a lot of anxiety that goes into [running at a meet],” Lund says.” During, it’s obviously stressful and painful, but when you’re done, it’s the best feeling.” Lund also says Cross Country is very helpful for getting into shape for her other sports seasons.

Always one to try something new, Lund started playing lacrosse in her freshman year of high school.

“It’s a lot newer for me,” Lund says. “I played lacrosse freshman year because I didn’t want to do track. I had a really bad eighth grade track season and I knew I was already out of shape for it so I said, ‘might as well just try something new.’”

Despite her lack of experience, Lund made JV her first year playing. And just a year later, she made the jump to varsity.

HSE Cross Country coach Joe Golden sees many benefits of being a multi-sport athlete. He mentions how playing many sports can improve one’s mental approach to everything they do.

“Multi-sport athletes are always well rounded in their physical and mental capacity.” Golden says. “This helps with competition- each sport requires a little different approach to be successful, and [Olivia] uses these different mental approaches to perform and train at a higher level.”

Lund has a difficult time deciding which sport she enjoys most.

“It’s whatever sport is in season because that’s what I’m focused on. If you asked [in the fall] I’d probably say cross country, but if I just got out of soccer practice, I’d probably say soccer. And after my lacrosse games I’d probably say, ‘oh lacrosse yea.’ It’s whatever I’m in the mindset for.”

More concerned about her academics, Lund has mixed feelings about continuing athletics post high school.

“it really just depends if any good opportunities come up,” Lund says. “I would rather pick a college academically versus for a sport, and I’m not sure that the colleges I might be interested in i’d be good enough to play a sport at. But you never know.”

Lund says she credits sports for introducing her to many of her friends. Lund also played basketball her freshman year for the Royals freshman girls’ team.

“I like to be busy personally, so it gives structure to my day to day life. Yea, I’ve done almost everything. The other day I was talking to my friends and they were like ‘yea we kind of started placing bets on if you’d burn out.’ I often get questions like ‘how are you doing this with the classes you’re taking and the sports and with a good job?’ I don’t know. It’s a little scrappy but I make it work.”