Taking the Mind out of the Matter

BY KURT HAUSMAN

Natalie Kessler was always a climber. She was introduced to the sport by her family members and fell in love immediately. She began climbing competitively when she was seven years old.

“My dad got me into climbing,” Kessler said. “It was always his thing and it felt good to share it with him.”

Kessler continued to progress in her climbing career as she grew older, traveling to competitions across the country. She didn’t begin running until her freshman year, at the push of her parents, who were also the coaches of Skyline’s high school team.

“My parents forced me to run a little bit,” Kessler said. “My brother did it and my whole family were runners. They said I had to try it for at least a week. I kind of pushed back a little bit, I didn’t really want to run that much but it got better.”

Kessler began running for recreation. She never thought about seriously competing and knew there was a large gap between her and the team’s top runners.

“Freshman year I was pretty bad,” Kessler said. “My first two mile time trial I ever ran, I walked half of it and I ran it in over 20 minutes. It took a while to improve. I didn’t really get good until my junior year track and senior year cross country seasons.”

Kessler continued to climb competitively throughout high school; she saw it as her main sport, with running being a second priority. But during her junior year, Kessler took time off from climbing to focus on her running career. As she began to focus more on running, she progressed rapidly. By the end of her junior year, Kessler was beginning to realize that she was running for competition, rather than just enjoyment.

“It felt good to have some success,” Kessler said. “It did make running a little more serious and a little more stressful. I started to dislike it a little more when I became more competitive because I had more pressure put on me by my parents because they’re also my coaches.”

Kessler’s success brought opportunities she had never before thought of as possibilities. This past March she he had the opportunity to compete with her club team in the 2023 Nike Nationals Indoor, a national high school track meet in New York City.

“This was the first national meet I’ve gone to,” Kessler said. “Since I got better later on in high school, I never really had those opportunities before. It was a great experience and it was super cool to compete there.”

Kessler’s success also attracted the attention of Division 1 college programs such as Michigan and Michigan State. In early March, Kessler committed to Michigan State for track and field and cross country.

“Originally, I was very set on not going to school in Michigan,” Kessler said. “It wasn’t until I was being recruited that that started to change. Being recruited made me feel valued by these big schools and gave me a sense of assurance in my ability. I thought the team culture at MSU was super nice and welcoming and I knew I at least wanted to get out of Ann Arbor for college.”

Since committing, Kessler has recently worked to get back to her roots of running: having fun with friends and enjoying the sport for recreation, not just competition.

“I’ve been learning to enjoy [running] more,” Kessler said. “I’m just getting into shape and I have more fitness, and that helps. It changed from like a fun side activity to like a big part of my life so quickly, so I’m learning to still enjoy it the same way I did when I started.”