Matt Meyer
Sports Reporter

Sophomore track star Alexis Skarda, the first and only national qualifier in the Mesa State track program’s history, has had a long and rough journey to the top. During high school and her time at Mesa, Skarda has suffered a large array of injuries.
“Injuries have always been an issue,” Skarda said. “I’ve had stress fractures and tendonitis. I missed my senior year of cross country with tendonitis in my knee. I was bummed about that.”
Despite injuries in high school, Skarda has learned to work past them, garnering All-American honors in cross country as a freshman.
“I feel like I’ve gone through enough to learn that lesson,” Skarda said. “But injuries really help you learn about your body and how to take care of yourself. The new lab has really helped me see my injuries and what muscles aren’t firing.”
To Skarda, the mental lessons that come from injuries are valuable.
“It’s always a bummer when you can’t compete,” Skarda said. “But when you get back out there, you work twice as hard, and you really appreciate it. You don’t take it for granted.”
The multiple record-breaker for the Mesa State program had a choice of schools to attend, but Mesa was the right choice for her.
“I was looking at Western (Colorado), Metro (State), and New Mexico as well as Mesa,” Skarda said. “But when I was talking to (assistant) coach Matt Canterberry and met all the girls, Mesa was the right choice for me. The weather is great and the small classes are nice. It feels great being part of this team with super-hard competition in such a competitive region.”
In an injury-free outdoor track season, Skarda has once again dominated her RMAC competition and recently ran the 1500m at the Sun Angel invite at Arizona State, notching a time of 4:28.84, automatically qualifying for NCAA nationals. She was the only DII runner competing in the race, and now ranks 3rd nationally in the 1500m.
“My favorite part of this year was the Arizona trip,” Skarda said. “We got to take everyone on a big bus. It’s a ten hour drive, so we spent a lot of time together. Going there and running in Sun Angel stadium with all these other talented girls was so much fun.”
Academically, Skarda doesn’t really know what she wants to focus on.
“I’m not really sure,” Skarda said. “I’d really like to compete in triathlons or focus on cross-training.”
Skarda will lead the Mavericks into the Jack Christensen Invitational in Fort Collins this Saturday before taking a week off to prepare for the RMAC Championships.

jameyer@mesastate.edu