Senior Maya Crimin has always loved to run.
She started running with other people for the first time in second grade, when her mom decided to find an outlet for her abundance of energy.
“I used to run around as a little kid and outlast all my cousins in the tag games we played,” Crimin said. “My mom was like, ‘Why don’t we put you on a cross country team?’”
That decision, coupled with her hard work and passion for the sport, took her to the next level at St. Mary’s College of California, where she will be running both Division I track and field and cross country. She’s also excited to run longer races in college, as the kilometer limits are higher at the upper level.
With this commitment, she joins The Falconer’s Next Level Seniors, a series that spotlights La Salle’s future collegiate athletes. She isn’t just graduating from La Salle, she’s leaving a legacy — last year, she broke La Salle’s 5k record, and this year, she also broke its 48-year-old 3k record, set in 1977.
Crimin points to the coach of that second-grade team as the person who had the biggest impact on her as a runner. She felt like he really cared about them and made it fun.
“‘You’re small, but mighty’ — he would always say that,” she said. “There weren’t as many girls on the team, but he always made us feel like we were just as important, and we could be just as strong.”
Crimin previously attended Franciscan Montessori Earth School, and her parents wanted her to go to another private school for high school, either La Salle or Central Catholic High School. In her eighth grade year, COVID-19 was still a threat for schools, but she did have the opportunity to tour each one before making her decision. Though she didn’t get to shadow students at either school, she preferred La Salle’s campus and overall atmosphere.
Going into high school, Crimin was prepared for her experience to be different.
She knew that as a freshman, she wasn’t going to be the best person on the team, so she decided to just “go in there and have fun,” she said. Though high school track was a jump from what she did in middle school and on her own, it went smoother than she expected.
“I would say the transition was definitely made easier by having run before because I knew what to expect from running,” she said.
When she came to La Salle, Crimin’s background in running meant that she was able to practice with the juniors and seniors on the team, which she noted as a really valuable part of her progress.
“It was really good getting to train with them,” Crimin said. “Because they had so much experience running, I got to learn a lot from them.”
Especially in cross country, where players score as a team each race, running is both an individual and team sport. Though Crimin does run for fun by herself, she participates in track and cross country because she enjoys the community and solidarity of being on a team.
“When you’re doing it for a team rather than just for yourself, other people are relying on you,” she said. “It feels like you’re doing something for the whole. It’s just more satisfying, and it’s a lot more fun.”
Crimin also enjoys running against other people, loving the spirit of competition.
While running is a sport Crimin could pursue in her own time, she decided to look into the college recruitment process because of her love for competition and team sports.
“I wanted to continue being able to compete, and running in college would allow me to still compete,” Crimin said. “It would allow me to still be on a team, which is something I’ve really enjoyed — just being able to meet people who love the same things I do.”
Above all, though, she is glad that the team constantly improved together.
“We really were able to bring the team together,” she said. “I felt like I had a part in bringing people together and making us all want to work hard for our goals.”
Rather than simply run recreationally, she decided to look into the recruitment process because of her love for competition and team sports.
The recruiting process was “kind of stressful” for Crimin, as she was figuring it out on her own. She emailed a couple of schools that her mom had suggested and looked into a few teams herself, trying to get a feel for where she could be recruited before emailing the schools.
St. Mary’s responded, and after a visit to the school in November, she committed.
“It was stressful, but then it was also really relieving just to have it all done,” Crimin said.
Running was one of the reasons she chose St. Mary’s, but there were several other factors in play.
Despite being a Division I school, St. Mary’s is relatively small, providing that one-on-one relationship with teachers that Crimin was looking for. According to her, the campus’ beautiful architecture and wide array of hiking and running trails were big reasons as well.
The school also has a “really good” English program, which is what Crimin wants to major in. Her choice is reflected in her love for the subject in general, both at school and in her free time. She feels like reading and writing is where everything “clicks,” she said, especially enjoying deeper dives into the meaning and context of new books.
“I want to write,” Crimin said. “The plan is to write a book. I’m not sure when, [but] I’m going to write one book in my life.”
Her book would definitely be some sort of fiction, possibly dystopian, because she loves reading books with dystopian themes, she said. She’s also interested in potentially becoming a scriptwriter for film or TV.
Outside of school, Crimin has a lot of hobbies: thrifting, reading, drawing, going to the park, hanging out with friends and family, paddleboarding on the river — basically “anything outdoors,” she said. Running is included in that, though at times, her diligent practice schedule can interfere with her social life.
“I feel like that’s probably been the biggest sacrifice, focusing on running more than focusing on hanging out with friends,” she said.
Practices are five days a week, two hours a day, with an additional 75-90 minute run on the weekends. All of that plus competition days and summer runs means that Crimin tends to plan her days around her running schedule. Though there is a massive amount of time and dedication that goes into maintaining the sport, she recognizes the value of staying driven and committed to it.
“If you keep putting effort into it and are determined, then you’ll always be able to reach your goals or at least improve, because you’ve been doing all the steps to get there,” she said. “It’s a long process … but eventually, it’s going to click.”
Though being a student athlete can be difficult, Crimin pushes through with a strong work ethic and organizational skills. It’s both an exercise and a necessary break for her from the business of everything else, and beyond that, she just loves to run.
“I race to make people proud; I feel like they’re my inspiration to do well,” Crimin said. “Obviously, I race for myself, but also, in some aspects, I race for my team, my parents, my family, and my coaches.”
