Claire Kisielnicki (12), Henry Ilyasova (12), and Abigail Parker (12) have all decided to chase their desires to continue to play the sports of their choice in college next year.

All the seniors who have signed to a sport for college have decided to commit their entire college career to play this sport; this means constant effort and dedication to their craft. 

For instance, Kisielnicki has decided to sign for division three lacrosse at Willamette University in Oregon. She has been playing lacrosse since sixth grade. However, she only started to enjoy it and became committed to the sport once she made varsity at Cheyenne Mountain High School during her freshman year. 

“I think I enjoy [lacrosse] too much to be done with it now,” Kisielnicki said. “I love the sport so much and just thinking about this being my last year it makes me want to cry. I just have so much fun being on the field and playing that I think I’m already so committed that it wasn’t even really a thought in my brain to not continue. It was just, ‘Oh, I’m gonna keep playing’ like that was just kind of first nature.” 

Kisielnicki is very excited to continue playing and going to a higher level and seems like she really cannot wait to move on.

“I’m so excited,” Kisielnicki said. “I think just being able to play at the higher level is going to be such a cool experience. And I haven’t really had the best experience in high school, playing and making friends on teams and that kind of thing. So I’m really just excited to have a group of people that I can play a sport I love with.”

Ilyasova committed to the University of Wyoming for division one track. Since freshman year, he has been running after he realized he wanted to get into better shape, and he never looked back. Ilyasova’s reason he shared for committing to his college has to do with personal growth and striving to better himself.

“I want to go further and I want to push myself as far as I can be the best runner I can,” Ilyasova said.

Due to Ilyasova’s aspirations, he seems very excited to go off to college and try to better his running.

“I’m very excited because it’s D one, and I’ve been waiting for this moment my whole running career,” Ilyasova said.

Parker has committed to the Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio for division three soccer. Since Kindergarten, she has been playing soccer but only became competitive with it in third grade. 

Parker thinks that all the different things you can do with the soccer ball intrigued her the most. Parker’s reasons that she shared for committing to the sport are more so due to it just working out.

“I just felt it would be somewhere that I would fit in,” Parker said. “Based on my conversations with the coach and my visit to the school, I just felt like it was supposed to be.”

Just like the rest of the seniors who have signed, Parker is very excited to pursue her sport and compete.

“I’m very excited about it,” Parker said. “I am just excited to meet the girls on the team and just go to college. And I’ve met some of the people that I’ll be playing with. We seem to get along.”