Prisca Namutchibwe

Prisca Namutchibwe ‘19 moved to Iowa from San Diego, California in her freshman year of high school. Now, she’s a junior, and is graduating early. It’s her first year on the track team, but previously, Namutchibwe had participated in soccer at City high. After taking a break to focus on academics her sophomore year, she was ready to get back into a sport. When Coach Parker made an announcement that he only needed five more people to join track to win a pizza party, it seemed like the perfect opportunity. However, she had no clue what event she wanted to run. “I asked one of my friends (for advice), I was like ‘What should I do?’ And they were like, just show up tomorrow and and ask (Coach Parker),” Namutchibwe said. “And then I showed up the next day, and here I am.”

Namutchibwe runs 100s, 200s, and 400s, mainly participating in sprinter events. Due to her late start in the sport, she probably won’t continue track in college (at least, not right away). “If I had started track earlier then I would have went directly into doing track in college, but I’ll possibly do an intramural thing first and see if I like that,” Namutchibwe said. “(If I do) then I’ll probably try out for the track team.”

One of Namutchibwe’s favorite moments was when she was put into her first 400 meter dash. “I heard so many horrible stories about the 400, and I knew it was going to be horrible, and I didn’t want to do it, (but coach Parker) made me do it. And it really sucked,” Namutchibwe said. However, she ended up getting the average of what people regularly run on a 400, which was great for her first year on the team. “I was like, Wow, that’s awesome. But yeah no, I’m never gonna do that again,” Namutchibwe said. The main thing she’s learned from track is perseverance. “Keep going, keep being committed with it, at least trying it out instead of saying that ‘Oh, I can’t do it’,” Namutchibwe said. “Like I thought I could have never done the 400, I thought I would never survive. I thought I was just gonna run into the midfield and not finish the race, but at least I finished it.”