Oakland University junior Makenna Scott hasn’t had the easiest road during her collegiate running career as she battles on for the Grizzlies after graduating from Glen Lake in 2022.
Scott found out she had a demiurgic gland brain tumor last year that kept her out of the indoor and outdoor track competitions the previous year.
“That was pretty disappointing. I wasn’t worried about my own success. I was truly worried about the teams,” she said.
After her health improved, she trained hard, but symptoms returned, resulting in another surgery scheduled for May. Scott was injured during the cross country season because of a stress fracture injury that resulted in her red-shirting this season.
The Grizzlies were coming off a conference championship in 2023, and Scott played a key role during her sophomore season.
As for the recently ended indoor track season, Scott came back slow and started to show significant improvement but felt fatigue growing.
“However, this team has kept me motivated. My goals have kept me motivated,” she said.
The red shirt junior’s surgery is scheduled during the outdoor conference championships, ending a short season for Scott.
“I will say somehow, through all of it, I am still motivated as ever. I’ve been talking to my coaches. They’ve told me I’ve been given every reason to give up, and yet, for some reason, I haven’t, and I tell them it’s the passion,” she said. “It’s the love and the fact that I have a team to push me, and we saw my success in high school. I know it’s in me. We saw my success last year, and I truly believe that the only person that matters, when it comes to believing is yourself.
“I know for a fact I can’t give up on myself. I’m looking forward to surgery, looking forward to getting through that and I’ll be back and when I keep a positive attitude through it, my coach says that’s his favorite thing about me is my attitude,” Scott said.
Once surgery is complete, she will try to get back in crosscountry form for the following season.
“We’re going to have a lot of new fresh talent, so I want to be a leader for them, and I want to help bring us that championship back that we deserve, that my girls deserve. Truly, it’s all for them. I love them so much and I will say the community behind me at Oakland, my family, and the community I still have back home throughout Leelanau County and Traverse City is incredible and I truly believe the first person that needs to believe in you is you and I’ll never give up myself, but I’d be lying if I said the support behind me didn’t make it way easier to keep pushing,” Scott said. “It doesn’t matter what you’re going through. You can still chase your dreams ... if you don’t reach maybe the highest goal you had, at least you had fun doing it, so I just hope it shows others that you can do anything you put your mind to.”
Scott had one win during the indoor season during a temp run with her teammate, which was just as big as any race throughout the season. Scott helped the Grizzlies win a Horizon League Championship with a 17th place finishing time of 21:59, behind her teammates Grace Nolan, Maryam Sheena, and Erin Hegarty.
Scott is one of the top runners coming out of the class of 2022, regardless of class or division. Scott is excited to pursue a degree in the medical field at Oakland with an interest in kinesiology.
Makenna is studying to be a nurse at Oakland and has one more year left in the labor and delivery clinic.
Scott won state championships in cross country in 2020 and the 3200-meter run during the 2021 track and field season.
