Salzer, Geffers recognized for commitment to excellence on field, in classroom

As seniors starting their final athletic seasons, Elijah Geffers and Claire Salzer both have received athletic and academic success by being nominated for WIAA scholar athletes of the year. The pair are involved in cross country and track. Geffers is also involved in wrestling and Salzer is an avid part of the swim team.

 Among the 516 schools in the WIAA, each school is allowed to nominate two seniors, one girl and one boy. Nominees must be a second semester senior with a cumulative GPA of 3.0. They must also have four varsity letters in their freshman, sophomore, and junior years, as well as fall and winter seasons of their senior year. The criteria to merely be nominated shows they must be driven individuals, not just within the sphere of athletics, but also within the classroom. For Geffers, this meant putting in the work even when everything was closed. 

“I thought I did a good job of training during COVID when it hit, even though I couldn’t go to the YMCA and do my normal lifts,” he said. “I still ran everyday, did my own at home workouts, and then when everything got lifted, it flowed right back into what I usually do, and I think that carried over into this year.” 

This could clearly be seen for Geffers as he qualified for state in cross country and made it to sectionals for wrestling. For Salzer, the work was mostly focused on how to properly balance two sports at once.

“I obviously swim and run cross country in the same season, so it’s a lot of practice which usually ends up being me swimming with the team and then running on my own,” she said. “You can’t get in the pool by yourself or without a lifeguard or anything, but I can run on my own. so it’s being able to balance both.” 

This paid off as Salzer was able to qualify for state in cross country and swim. However, nominees couldn’t just be athletically inclined; the two also had to hit the books. 

“I always try to focus in the classroom and always apply myself while staying on top of my homework, and I just try to grasp the concepts of everything instead of memorization,” Geffers said. “I always try to understand the material and then apply that so I wouldn’t just retain it just for a test  I would obtain it for the future.” 

This method has helped him academically as he was able to maintain the GPA necessary to be nominated. Salzer was also able to achieve this academic success. 

“So this year, I had three college level courses but it’s always like three hours of homework plus sports and everything else,” Salzer said. “Past years it was always the same because I’ve had college level courses all throughout high school.” 

Through this, Salzer learned a valuable lesson that also transferred to her sports. 

“It’s definitely a balancing act because of all the school work you get and practice times, but because of the school work, time management is something that I learned really quickly simply because there wasn’t another option,” she said, “especially with doing so much being involved in sports, clubs, and extracurriculars, it made it that much easier to learn how to better manage time or it’s not going to get done.” 

This forced Salzer to become a more efficient student while also being a stellar athlete. Geffers credits the classroom for helping build his confidence. 

“It’s given me the confidence to succeed in athletics and also handle stress because tests can be scary and especially because grades mean a lot nowadays,” he said. “Especially in high school, so I feel like I show them I can handle that pressure on tests and that I can transfer easily.”

They both are also thankful for the opportunity to be a WIAA scholar athlete. 

“It feels really good, especially because there are so many good athletes at West,” Geffers said. “Also, some of the sports I do, like cross country, aren’t always mainstream like basketball and football, so it felt really good to get that recognition.” 

They are waiting in anticipation to hear if they are one of the lucky 32. Salzer is also excited, especially because they get to share it together. 

“Being nominated is awesome! I was talking to Ms.Wayne about it, and she said there hasn’t been a swimmer in a very long time,” Salzer said. “But also being nominated with Elijah because we were teammates in two of our three sports, which is pretty cool.”

By Lily Fournier

March 18 2022

Volume 118 Issue VI