Senior Spotlight: Luke Kalarickal

Luke Kalarickal, 12, is a track and cross country runner at Mill Creek and has been running for about four years. 

When asked whether he has a preference for either cross country or track he said, “For cross country, I don’t particularly enjoy running in the longer races or running in the grass, but just hanging out with the people during cross country is a lot better, because we get better treatment for away trips.”

Kalarickal shares his thoughts on his recent success being the Varsity Boys winner at the Gwinnett County Championship.

“I’ve been putting in a lot of work, especially two years ago when we had the state championship team and it propelled me to my success this year. I worked very hard to get these awards after winning the county meet.”

He now plans to run track and cross country for the University of Georgia (UGA) this upcoming fall.

He describes the entire process stating, “I only applied to schools I wanted to run for, and getting in contact with the coaches was difficult. You have to persist and email the coach many times…and try not to be too pushy, but you also want to make a name for yourself.”

Kalarickal attributes his success to Coach Christie saying, “For cross country, you really need someone who cares about the sport and he does. Him being a part of the team when we won state, created a culture of working hard and that you can’t just slack off.”

At UGA he will be majoring in Biology and wants to attend medical school similar to his parents.

“I’m interested in orthopedic surgery. It’s surgery dealing with bones so I’ll be dealing with hip or partial replacements. I know the school is super long, and the hours are not that great, but I think it’ll be an interesting field to study.”