On June 6, 2026, in her last race of her high school career, Athena Andrecyk of Kingston Secondary School, defended her 2025 championship in the 3,000 senior girl’s race at the Ontario Federation of Secondary Schools Athletic Association track and field finals in St. Catharines.
Winning my last high school race feels surreal and amazing, she said. “I have had the opportunity to run with some really talented girls throughout my high school career. It was a privilege to be able to wear the KSS singlet one last time, surrounded by these girls.
Her time of nine minutes, 37.15 seconds was just over three seconds ahead of the second place finalist.
“The race didn’t go completely the way that I thought.” Andrecyk told Tourism Kingston. “My race strategy was to get away from the pack and lead from the start. My goal was to run my laps at record pace, and then see what I could do. 5 laps into the race, my legs were really starting to feel off. Thankfully, I was able to hold on long enough to get the win.”
Andrecyk also beat her winning time by 11 seconds from the 2025 OFSSA championship at York University. She also won the OFSSA Senior women cross country championship in the fall of 2024. She missed the 2025 championship due to an injury.
In an interview at Caraco Field after a recent training session, Andrecyk said she found her love for running while at Lancaster Drive Public School.
When she joined Kingston Secondary School, she was able to compete against runners from across the province.
“Longer distance was what I was comfortable with,” she said. "I fell in love with cross country first.”
She started competing in four-kilometre races in grade nine, moving up to six kilometres in grades 11 and 12.
“The longer the races went, the more I enjoyed it,” she said. “I love the scenery with cross country, there’s just so much to look at when you run through the woods.”
Andrecyk has run in eight-kilometre national competitions as well as the 3,000 and 5,000 races on the track.
“I fell in love with it. It was something that I did with my friends in elementary school and I’ve met a lot of new friends through it,” Andrecyk said when speaking of her passion for distance running. “All of them are so passionate about it and it’s nice to be able to share that,” she said.
Her personal bests are nine minutes, 27 seconds in the 3,000 metres and 16 minutes and 12 second in the 5,000 metres. “I try to hold the same pace throughout so start off strong and get in a good kick at the end.”
This summer she plans to compete at the 3000 and 5000 U20 nationals later this month (June 17-21, 2026) in Ottawa. But her drive to compete doesn’t stop there. Athena has committed to the University of Alabama. The 17-year-old will be studying biochemistry.
“I think it’s going to be really fun,” she said of the opportunity. “It’ll be nice to be in close contact with girls who love and are competitive in running”, Andrecyk said looking forward to the fall when she gets into the environment where she’ll be pushed by her new teammates to be better.
"The thing about distance track is there’s so many different types of women who pace and strategize differently and just have different levels of strength and gears to be able to run over these long distances,” she said. “So, I know being able to see these different types of women compete, have fun and just be able to show up on the day is really inspiring."
