MARK MOSCHETTI • FOR GO HUSKIES MAGAZINE
he runs. She hurdles. She jumps. She throws. But long before she discovered her hankering for the heptathlon, Ida Eikeng was already a multi-event athlete. She played handball. Played soccer. Played ice hockey. Did cross country skiing. Tried gymnastics. All while growing up in Norway, where she was born in Porsgrunn. Then, once she found track, she initially gravitated toward the sprints and the hurdles, and eventually grew to love the javelin. “I would do a bunch of events just for fun,” the University of Washington sophomore standout said. “It was too hard to give up events because I found all of them so fun. So, I just stuck with them. It was when I was 16 or 17 that I really started to do the heptathlon.” Now, she has become the highest-scoring heptathlete in school history with her total of 5,920 points at last year’s NCAA Championships, giving her fifth place in the meet and an All-American award. Continued on page 13 PAGE 10
GoHUSKIES
