Luke Williamson ’25 joined Outdoor Track his Lower year but quickly made an impact. As one of the team’s top runners in both his primary event, the three-kilometer run, and his secondary event, the 1500-meter run, he is an integral member of the Track community. As a captain, he leads by example, inspiring others to be their best selves.
Williamson described how his running journey began at a young age. Convinced by his mom and sister to begin running competitively in fifth grade, Williamson never looked back. After excelling on the cross country team his Junior year, he continued his athletic career on the Outdoor Track team his Lower year.
“I’ve been running for a long time. In fifth grade, I joined running clubs because my sister was into it and my mom did a lot of running so they encouraged me to do that too. My family was always big on running. I really like cross country and I was pretty good at cross country [Junior] year. I was probably third on the team, and so the coaches asked me to do track, and it seemed like a good continuation of my running journey. I did indoor track [Junior] year, and then I started doing outdoor track sophomore year. I love the team. I love running with those guys. I couldn’t go without running. If you told me to stop running, I would probably go insane. Running puts me at peace, it makes me laugh and feel good,” said Williamson.
Alfonso Gonzalez-Canó ’27 emphasized Williamson’s talent as a fast runner, motivator, and hard worker. Gonzalez-Canó noted that his attitude propels the team forward.
“Luke Williamson is a great captain. He’s always motivating the team, he’s one of the most hardworking individuals I know and he’s definitely an amazing runner. He is probably our best 3K runner on the team this season. He is also a force to be reckoned with in the mile, where he also does pretty good, turning out really good performances and placing in top five. Overall, he’s someone who’s very hardworking and ensures that the team is always moving forwards,” said Gonzalez-Canó.
Cameron Butler ’28 highlighted Williamson’s consistent hard work and resiliency. Butler noted that while Williamson did not achieve his best time at a meet last weekend, Williamson put it behind him and returned to practice with his usual intensity.
“He’s an inspiration. He puts in really good work during all of our workouts, especially our hard workouts. We had a meet last weekend and he put a really great effort out there. He opened up super hard, maintained that pace as best he could. He didn’t quite get the results he wanted, but he bounced back super fast and he’s back to training really hard. He leads by example. He puts in a lot of work and you definitely see that. He also gives banger speeches right before the meet. He hypes up the team. He’s very motivating, for sure,” said Butler.
Williamson noted that he leads Outdoor Track by setting an example that he knows others will follow. He believes that hard work is contagious, and that being the one to step up to the plate may spur others into action as well.
“When people work hard, especially with sports, it’s infectious. If you’re doing a workout and the coach says ‘All right, who wants to do one more rep.’ And you say, ‘I’ll do another rep,’ automatically other people think, ‘Okay, if he is doing another rep, I’ll do another rep too.’ You don’t have to be captain to do it. Pushing yourself causes other people to push themselves too, which they wouldn’t have done otherwise. It’s the same for cheering people on. If I’m loud, if I’m going off to someone who I might not know that well, people will all start shouting loud too. People don’t always know what to do with themselves. When they’re presented with an image, it helps them and it gives them somebody to follow,” said Williamson.
Next year, Williamson plans to walk on to the cross country team at the United States Naval Academy
