Rachel Howieson
Smith-Cotton senior Rachel Howieson is looking for scholarship offers for running from small schools in Missouri.
“I really don’t want to get too far away,” said the 17-year old Howieson, a state sectional qualifier in cross country last fall. “I’d like to stay in Missouri.”
Taking a look at her grades, it’s pretty clear she might be able to go to any school in the country. Howieson has a 4.4 grade point average on a 4.0 scale, scored a 30 on the ACT the third time she took it and plans to take it again this year to try to earn a Bright Flight Scholarship. She is ranked 14th academically out of 311 students in her Senoir Class.
“Academics are more important,” said Howieson. “Sports are fun but grades will take you a lot farther.”
Howieson is the treasurer of the school’s chapter of the National Honor Society, is a member of the French Club and plays the flute in the concert and marching bands at S-C.
Howieson played both softball and basketball from an early age through her sophomore year at SC.
“I gave up softball because I didn’t think I was progressing any,” she said. “I gave up basketball because I wanted to concentrate on running.”
Howieson has run track since the seventh grade, mainly running the 800 and 1,600-meter events. This fall will be her second in cross country. She qualified for sectional last fall in Camdenton by finishing 22nd at the district meet.
“It’s my goal to make All Sectional this year and make the state. I ran my personal best time at the sectional last year but I didn’t qualify for state,”
Asked which sport was her favorite, Howieson sat silent for a moment.
“That’s a good one, probably either track or cross country,” she said.”I think track because you can run in different events and it also is a larger sport There are more people in track.”
Her high school athletic highlight came when the Lady Tiger softball team won the West Central Conference chapionship her sophomore year.
Her hobbies include knitting, reading, collecting buttons and playing with her two dogs — an Australian Shepard and an Australian Shepard/labrador mix.
She has a younger brother, Sam Howieson, 15, and a sophomore at S-C. She is the daughter of Carrie and George Howieson, Sedalia.
