My name is Niko Dayment. I am in the class of 2025 and attend Grant Community High School in Fox Lake, Illinois. In my athletic career at Grant I have competed at the varsity level in both Cross Country and Track every year. Through the years I have shown drastic improvements. Improving my 1600m time from a 5:06, first ever 1600m, to a 4:32.22 and my 800m from a 2:15 to a 1:58.88. Along with those personal bests, I ran the 4x400m relay almost every meet, splitting consistent 53.__ with some change. Including the 1:58.88 PB, running this at sectionals allowed me to qualify for the 2023 IHSA Boys Track and Field State meet. Running 1:58.93 and exceeding my heat seed of 11th to 6th and overall seeding of 40 to finishing 25th in prelims. Finishing that day as the top sophomore performer in the 800m run. The year had been filled with success I never saw coming, but the major success seen from track, showed to me that I can accomplish so much more. I want to accomplish bettering my XC and Track times, my mentality on the sport, as well as staying healthy through both seasons. My goals for my junior year are as follows: sub 15:15 3 mile, sub 4:20 1600m, 1:56 800m, and work my relay split down to a 51.00. Running at Detweiler at Dark had me finishing with a time of 16:30 which is an excellent start to my XC season. Seeing all this success, another personal goal is to take that leadership role. As I made it to state, I got to put down a good example and work ethic to ultimately lead the younger generation of the team to bigger and better success. I can’t wait for my next two years of running and what my team and hard work will show.

But I am not just an athlete. I am always constantly reminded here at Grant that we are student-athletes. School and academics come before running. I have made drastic changes to my schedules to work into being an all honors student. Due to poor scheduling, I had only been put into one honors class my freshman year, but into sophomore year, I had been in all honors classes for both semesters. And in my junior year I am taking an AP class alongside the all honors schedule. With all the changes, I am still maintaining a high GPA, holding a 3.913 on a 4.0 scale and a 4.545 on a 5.0 scale. The constant reminder motivates me to be a well rounded student and peer in the class, then to ultimately be able to compete and run on a daily basis. My goals for the next years in the class are to take more AP classes, maintain my GPA, but also being an existing student, by that I mean to be able to talk to others and teachers, put myself out there.

After school however, I am still undecided on what I want to pursue or major in. I have a spot for science and mathematics. Math and science have always been my heavy favorites and best grade in the gradebook. Even becoming a math tutor this year to help my peers around me that have a struggle with math. Outside of class, this summer, I had worked as a lifeguard and having my first job had taught me well. It taught me things I had been lacking in my past, such as being a good companion, learning how to be a leader and role model, and learning how to be flexible or show your true problem solving skills in crunch time.

This is the most promising I have felt throughout high school and I will continue to do so. I will look to maintain and improve my GPA, become a better leader, and work towards my running times. Life works in wondrous ways, knowing this, I know life from now on is going to be filled with unexpected moments, questions, and barriers. But I am willing to work through and be the best I can be through this process. I have become fairly new to the sport of running, but if I lived my life 100 times over I would pick running every single time. I love it. I would be extremely happy and thankful to be able to pursue an academic and athletic career at the collegiate level. For more information, please email me at nikodayment2025@gmail.com.