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ROXANA - Gifted student-athlete senior Jennifer Palen has been a mainstay on Roxana’s girls' cross country and track and field teams for her entire high school career.
Jennifer is a multi-sport athlete at Roxana High School, participating in track and field and also tennis. She is quite versatile in track and field, and runs everything from the 400 meters and up, the 4 x 800 relay and open 800 meters.
For her success this fall for the Shells and her overall athletic skills, Palen is the Riverbender.com Roxana High School Female Athlete of the Month.
Jennifer’s best time this year for 3 miles was around 20 minutes. She said she loves the family aspect of cross country.
“The team and people with cross country are really great,” she said. “The team and people make me feel good about myself and great with long-distance adventures. I love that aspect of cross country, we get to go to all sorts of places and it is really fun.”
Jennifer said she is likely going to Greenville University in Greenville, IL., and will run cross country and track.
“I wasn’t going to run in college initially, but when I went there and received the athletic tour, I changed my mind,” she said.
Jennifer is ranked 22nd out of 150 seniors presently at Roxana High School and is a straight-A student. She takes her education seriously and hopes to possibly be a physical therapist and major and focus on exercise science in the future.
“I love the whole aspect of exercising and I think physical therapy is a really good fit for me,” she said. “This year at times was hard, but Coach Edwards helped keep me motivated. He definitely pushed us to keep moving forward during the COVID-19 Pandemic. He convinced me how much running is my passion. He said I was one of his elite runners.”
Riverbender.com's Athlete of the Month program is made possible by the generosity of our sponsors and the cooperation of our area high schools. This is a great accomplishment and one to be very proud, of. Please join us in congratulating this young athlete. We at Riverbender.com wish you continued success in your future!
