By Collin Bolebruch
Ginny Lucchetti is a junior member of Plattsburgh State cross country and track and field. A multi-time SUNYAC and Regional competitor, they specialize in distance, most notably posting a 1500-meter run time of 5:09.16.
Ginny was not just a runner through their youth, but also trained in karate for eight years.
In the classroom, Ginny studies art, and publicly shares their works on Instagram. Most of Ginny’s work includes digital drawings of people or anime characters.
Ginny and their teammates have developed strong bonds, spending plenty of time together outside of their year-long meets and practices.
Question: Where is your favorite place to practice and why?
Answer: My favorite place to run around is actually Hawkins Pond. Currently Marissa Colvin and I are number two on the fastest lap around Hawkins Pond. Last semester, we set a personal record of 20 laps around Hawkins Pond, and this year we are planning on breaking it.
Q: Regarding art and sport, compare and contrast the ways each allows you to express yourself.
A: Both are outlets for me to be me. I have a hard time finding words most of the time so words aren’t always good to express how I feel, but my art and running give me that freedom where the limitation of my words fails. I got told during our last painting critique that I “paint like a runner” because of how energetic my work looks. Art and running are honestly very similar. (cut) I cannot think of ways they are that different from each other. Both are amazing ways to express myself. Whether it’s my teammates, peers, coaches or professors, they’re all so supportive of whatever I do and they make it so that I have an environment to express myself, which is awesome.
Q: What are the pros and cons of being a year-round competitor?
A: Being a year-long competitor definitely does come with a hefty list of both cons and positives. For starters, sometimes it’s like a constant “homesick” feeling of missing the other sport that isn’t in-season at the moment. It can also become a lot with classes. We have 6:30 a.m. practice for the first half of the week, so some of my days I go from practice to nine hours of classes, which is simultaneously fun and existentially dreadful — it’s a splendid time. Even though it can be really rough sometimes, my college experience would be so drastically different without it. I personally wouldn’t enjoy it. I need something to constantly be happening and cross country and track and field gives me that. (cut) It’s also really cool where we get to travel for it. Last year we fled the Burgh to go to a lot of cool places for meets, such as Massachusetts and Staten Island. I got to reunite with old teammates at a lot of our track meets last year, which was very sentimental to me as well. The cross country and track teams here are filled with amazing people with amazing energies who make coming to practice the highlight of what I look forward to in my day.
Q: What belt did you receive in karate? What skills do you still use today?
A: I made it all the way to a black belt! Growing up as a girl in a sport dominated by boys, this sport gave me a lot of the confidence I needed growing up. I used to compete nationally and instead of competing against girls, my dad wanted me to learn to fight guys so he had me compete in the boys divisions. My sparring gear was all pink to express my femininity because everyone else’s sparring gear was a variation of black, red, or white. Because of that, I was called names like “pinky” by the referees and my fellow competitors. (cut) Since I was a girl, nobody took me seriously and my competitors — especially in sparring — used to look at me as an easy win. I overheard a dad talking to his son, who had to fight me one time, saying that I’m an easy win because I’m only a girl. I got the win overall in the competition and after that, the dad apologized to my dad for not taking me as a serious competitor. Despite my genetic disadvantages of being a girl, every day after what was already our two-hour practice, my dad would have me go home and do 500 kicks on each leg and five hundred punches with each arm. We also came up with combinations like “green” so that would mean roundhouse kick to jab and then to punch. We probably had somewhere close to 50 combinations that my dad would yell during my sparring competitions, so that my competitors never knew what I was going to do.
This question-and-answer was conducted with Ginny over email Oct. 8.
