Lilyana Sanchez beginning journey as a track and field athlete

BRADENTON, Fla. (WWSB) - This week’s ABC7 Athlete of the Week is Lilyana Sanchez. She’s 12 years old and starting up her journey in track and field.

She just competed in her second ever meet at the Under Armour National meet at IMG Academy, where she also plays soccer.

Sanchez is a long distance runner, and she talked to us about some of her process when she’s running. “When I’m running long distance, I start a little fast, but then I stay at a nice even pace throughout the race,” Sanchez said. “I like doing the track, but I’ve been using driveways or sidewalks and stuff like that.”

Although Sanchez just got started on this journey, you wouldn’t be able to tell with some of the success she’s had so far.

Last week I ran my first ever track meet," Sanchez said. “It went well. It felt really good. I was not expecting that because I had never, ever done it before.”

Despite such a great start on this journey, she knows there’s more work for her to do. Sanchez says she welcomes the challenge now because she wants to do this on the high school level too and knows it’s going to be more intense when she gets to that point.

“I’d like to get better on the pace that I am at whenever I’m running long distance,” Sanchez said. “I’m hoping to do it in high school. I’m hoping to get faster and stronger so that I might one day become a pro.”