Siemens creates own path to KU

Providence Academy senior Anna Siemens (center) takes a photo with her father David Siemens on Tuesday after signing a track scholarship with Kansas University at First Nazarene Church in Rogers.
Providence Academy senior Anna Siemens (center) takes a photo with her father David Siemens on Tuesday after signing a track scholarship with Kansas University at First Nazarene Church in Rogers.

ROGERS — Anna Siemens is one of nine children in her family, so she’s used to running with a crowd.

On the track, it’s a different story as Siemens is usually running away from the pack.

Siemens, a senior at Providence Academy, clocked the fourth-fastest time in the state last spring in the 400 meters in 57.47 seconds. On Tuesday she signed a letter of intent to run track at Kansas University next season.

“I got to visit up there with my summer track coach, Mike Trexler,” said Siemens. “He took me up there with my training partners during the summer, and I got to meet the coach and I really liked the facilities.”

Siemens competes in the Oklahoma Christian School Athletic Association state meet, but she also competes weekly in the area’s largest track meets against mostly Class 7A runners. She’s won the OCSAA 400 meters state championship three straight years. Siemens said she will likely move up to the 800 meters at Kansas. She also competes in a few indoor meets in the winter months leading into the spring season.

P rovidence Academy athletic director Austin Bivens said Siemens broke the 60-second barrier in the 400 as an eighth-grader.

“After she did that, with the way she’s built with her long legs and slender build, we thought she could definitely go quite a bit lower than that,” Bivens said. “So she started training in the summers and thought maybe she could get in that 55-second range.”

The work paid off last summer as Siemens clocked a 55.78 at a USATF event in Sacramento, Calif., a junior Olympic national event, that earned her All-American designation.

Siemens is the third Providence Academy athlete to sign a college letter of intent in the past week. Two of those were Division I letters, including this one.

“These are great kids and that is the main thing,” Bivens said. “We just feel very blessed to have great students who are also great athletes.”

Chip Souza can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter@NWAChip.

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