After a successful season last year, senior Bella Brauc is hoping to finish even stronger in her last high school track season before becoming a Division 1 athlete at Northern Arizona University in the fall.

Brauc has been on the Oak Park and River Forest varsity track team since her freshman year. Her events include the 400 meter dash, high jump and the 4×400 meter relay. 

The 400 meter dash is “a good balance between mental and physical,” Brauc said. “Distance running is very mental, and when it’s such short sprinting, it’s kind of all physical.” Brauc placed ninth in state last season for the 400 meter dash, and her personal record is 57.4 seconds. Brauc also placed ninth in state for high jump, with a personal record of 5’ 4”. 

While track is not a traditional team sport, Brauc has found a community within the track team. “A big thing about sprinting is like, you run one rep and then you can talk while you’re resting, and you meet so many people,” said Brauc. “They’re girls from other teams who are technically rivals, but we also compete against each other so much that we just become friends.”

She has also become a leader on the team, particularly to the underclassmen. “This year, I really tried to push freshmen forward,” said Brauc. “There’s a few freshmen that I’ve really tried to encourage to not be shy, because when I was a freshman, I was really shy, and… I really try to make sure that freshmen don’t feel that way.”

Senior and teammate Nora Butterly sees Brauc as a leader because of how she “keeps everyone focused. She is always intentional, whether that be during warm-ups, a particular high jump drill or even on the last rep of a sprints workout, giving it her all when her body or mind feels like giving up.” Brauc helps her teammates succeed and she “pushes them to be the best athletes they can be so they can hit their goal time or jump their goal height,” Butterly added.

Tamara Gardner, the sprints coach and math teacher at OPRF, described Brauc as a leader through her “rallying the girls at the beginning of practice, encouraging them when she sees that they might need it and just being an example,” she said. “Even when she doesn’t win, she is still the best teammate ever. Of course we all want to win, but she is genuinely happy when they win.”

Gardner also believes that what makes Brauc stand out as an athlete is “the way that she attacks races and her work ethic,” she said. “She’s always been a hard worker, but her work ethic is just different, the intensity is greater…That’s not something that can be taught or coached. That’s within.”

“I worked really hard, and I’ve stayed very consistent, which I haven’t been able to do the past few years. So I’m really proud of myself for staying on the grind,” said Brauc.

According to Butterly, Brauc is one of the most dedicated athletes she knows. “For half the year Bella is training by herself, staying consistent in her time and effort…Bella is an excellent example of how consistent practice and diligence produces great success,” said Butterly.

Track is a sport that measures success very clearly, since it is time and distance based, which can make progress slow and frustrating for many athletes. “I’ve definitely learned to not put myself down when I have bad workouts or bad races,” Brauc said. “The sport isn’t linear. You’re not always going to get better. Sometimes you’re going to stay stagnant or not run the same times that you were at the last meet. So I’ve come to terms with that and just focus on performing my best at the end of the season at state.” With State coming up in May, Brauc is “looking to place top three in all [her] events.”

“I want to see her on the podium again, and not where she was last year,” said Gardner. “Even if she doesn’t do it, I’ll still be happy because I know she would have fought as much as she could.”

What motivates Brauc to continue to improve in order to play in college is her love for the sport and the community, which makes her want to continue to be a part of it. “It was almost a given, because I really love it. And I think after college I want to coach,” said Brauc. “I really just want to continue to be a part of track.”

With college on the horizon, Brauc is looking forward to a new challenge and a new environment. “I’m really excited to just go see what I can do at the next level,” said Brauc. “Also to have new people around me and have new coaches, and see what new things that I can learn from all of them.”