Athlete Spotlight: James Wood cross country runner Will Simko

James Wood High School 17-year-old senior

Sport: Cross country

Parents: Scott and Emily Simko

Hometown: Winchester

What do you love about cross country?: I love the races and how competitive it is. It’s just being able to better yourself every day and compete with your old times, just trying to do better.

Most memorable moment in cross country: It was when I ran my PR (17 minutes, 29 seconds) at Third Battle (this year). It was very exciting. It was like the best I’ve ever felt after a cross country race.

Most embarrassing moment in cross country: It’s showing up late for practice. We had a practice just before regionals and I accidentally did not set my alarm. It was very embarrassing showing up that day.

Most difficult moment in cross country: I think it’s just bad weather during a cross country race — like lots of rain and muddy conditions. That definitely holds me back the most during the season. It’s very muddy and you’re sliding all around. It just made the race a lot harder.

Three people you can have dinner with, dead or alive: Joe Rogan, he does a podcast and I like a lot of the topics. He talks about health and basically anything. I like his insight and opinions on things; Elon Musk, because he is just the best businessman in the world and I take a lot of things he says seriously because I like the business aspect. I think it would be interesting to have a conversation with him; Andrew Huberman, he runs a neuroscience lab at Stanford. A lot of his health information is super interesting and I take a lot of advice from him and try to implement it in my day-to-day life. It would be interesting to talk about those things with him.

Who is your biggest athletic influence?: My sister [Paige]. She does D-1 swimming at Loyola (Md.) and I’ve taken a lot of inspiration to see what she’s done and to try to compete with her and do as well as her. Her hard work and dedication, you can see it. I try to get to that standard every day.

Favorite teacher: Miss [Amelia] Snapp. I really enjoy her English class and she’s helped me a lot with the college application process. I don’t think I would be able to do it without her.

Favorite athlete: Cristiano Ronaldo

Favorite sports team: Tottenham Hotspur Football Club

Favorite movie: “Smile”

Favorite TV show: “Breaking Bad”

Favorite song: “Sandman” by A$AP Rocky

Favorite food: Chicken wings at Buffalo Wild Wings

Worst thing you’ve eaten: Broccoli

Plans after high school: I hope to go to UVa to study finance and economics and after that hopefully I can do something in that field and go back and get my MBA in that program there. Investment banking would be a start, but hopefully I can branch out to hedge funds or venture capital. My dad and I have always been into the stock market and how that’s moving. I’ve always been interested in the economy in general because it kind of dictates everything that happens in the world. ... It’s never going to go away and it’s super important. I like big business and how it works.

— Compiled by Walt Moody