Chloe Williford has been a leader of the Greeneville girls cross country team for the past four years, and now she is looking to do even bigger things with her running career.
On Wednesday in a ceremony at the high school in front friends and family she signed the join the program at Walters State Community College.
“It’s exciting and I’m ready for it. It’s a great to opportunity to continue running and it’s basically free,” Williford said.
Williford was elected captain of this year’s Lady Devils team by her teammates. She helped Greeneville to Twin Lakes Conference Championship this season and a fifth-place finish at the Region 1-A/AA meet. As a junior she helped the Lady Devils advance to the state meet where she was Greeneville’s top finisher, coming in 64th out 235 runners. She was the Greene County champion as both a freshman and sophomore.
Now her attention will turn to training as she looks to improve before joining the Lady Senators in the fall.
“I’m definitely going to have to get some conditioning miles in over the summer, some good miles,” Williford said. “Then I need to do some speed work, and just keep at it. There are sometimes that I don’t like to do it, but then I do it and it makes me feel better. I think the discipline of it and the competition is something I like.”
Walters State just won the NJCAA Region 7 Championship in October for the second time in four years. The Lady senators placed 21st at the NJCAA National Cross Country Meet and they also placed 13th at the NJCAA Nation Half Marathon.
Williford plans to major in nursing at Walters State, and if the right opportunity presents itself, she might consider running beyond her time in Morristown.
“I’m planning on doing the nursing program there, so that made choosing Walters State a great combo,” Williford said. “I like the idea of helping people and I’m really interested in science so I felt like nursing was good choice. I don’t know if there is a specific area of nursing I want to work in yet, but I do want to be a travel nurse for at least a few years.”
