PROCTORVILLE — Leah Gorby found a way to combine her love of animals with a love of running.
The Fairland Lady Dragons senior distance runner discovered she had a love of running and decided to take it to the next level as she signed a letter-of-intent with the Wilmington College Quakers to run cross country and track.
And one of the reasons she fell in love with Wilmington was her love of animals because she planned to major in biology and animal science, a curriculum the school offered.
“Ohio State has always been my dream school. I’ve always wanted to go there. But we went to a college fair a few months ago and I found Wilmington there and I went to visit one day in December and automatically just fell in love with the school,” said Gorby.
“I’ve been back like five times. I’ve grown closer to the whole cross country team and close to all the coaches and all the professors. I just love it there.”
Gorby is involved in 4-H and has shown animals at the Lawrence County Fair for the past nine years.
“I’ve shown rabbits for nine years and this year I’m showing rabbits and goats,” said Gorby, who has a grand champion trophy from 2017 on her résumé.
“We don’t live on a farm but that’s what I want when I get older. I want to have big land and I want to have a lot of animals. I’ve been working with animals my whole life and we’ve been raising rabbits for like 10 years now and it has been really good and it has just grown my love for animals.”
Although Gorby has had a love for animals for more than a decade, her love of running only started her junior year.
“My mother suggested that I run cross country so I just decided to try it out and see what happens,” said Gorby.
“I started running not even a year ago. It was May or June of last year. My mom said try it out and I said OK and I started running and I’d try out for cross (country) and see how it goes.
“(Coach Chuck) Wentz really pushed me throughout the summer and it just grew my love for it. It was really hard but I loved how I felt after workouts and how good I felt and then during the season coach (Phil) Snyder and her husband pushed me and now (track coach Renee). Marshall and her daughter Allie are helping me with track season and they helped me in the summer to prepare for this fall.”
Gorby joked her mom’s encouragement may have been an excuse just to get her out of the house but she’s happy to have taken her mother’s advice.
“She said it would help me and I just wanted to try it out and it has helped me,” she said.
Cross country won’t be the only sport for Gorby who will also run track which will keep her busy year-round.
“My times aren’t the best right now because I got hurt after cross country and I’m still trying to come back from that. I’m shooting to hit 14 flat on my two-mile and for my 5K and cross I’m shooting for 23 and under,” said Gorby whose main events are the 4x800 relay and 3200.
Running cross country isn’t the only “cross” sport that interests Gorby. She has also been involved in motocross won’t with her brother, Bryce, as they follow in the footsteps of their father Jason who not only participated in motocross but went to the nationals several times.
“He was pretty good at it,” Gorby said of her father.
When asked if handling a nervous and scared animal was more dangerous than riding motocross, she didn’t hesitate with her answer.
“Probably motocross. This past summer I bruised a few ribs and I had to take a week or two off from running because it was really hard to breathe. But I recovered. It’s okay,” said Gorby with a grin.
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