Champions' TriBUne Archive

By: Kiana Horton    
 
Champions' TriBUne is a special feature through Baylor Athletics that will give you the student-athlete's perspective and tell their story in their voice. Kiana Horton, a senior All-American from San Antonio, Texas, has won three Big 12 400-meter championships and set the indoor and outdoor school records. A May graduate who won a pair of gold medals in the 4x400 relay running for USA last summer, Kiana will compete in the NCAA West Preliminary Championships that start Thursday in Sacramento, Calif.:
             
My dad left when I was in 4^th grade, so I was around 9 years old when he left us. And it's your basic father walks out, never turns back kind of story. There was no leading up to, no big climax. It was like I saw him one day and never saw him again. I've had no contact with him since the day he left.
             
Growing up without a father really affected my mental health, because being that young, I didn't really understand why those kinds of things happen. I guess growing up, no one really asks about your parents. But, when you get to college, it's like, "Where's your mom from? Where's your dad from?" And I tell them, "Well, my mom does this and she's from here." Then, they ask me about my dad, and I was like, "I don't know. I was really young when he left, so I never really got the opportunity to build a relationship with him. And now, I don't know if he's alive or dead." When I started getting those types of questions, I didn't really have an answer for them.
           
A lot of people would assume my stepdad was my dad, and at the time I didn't know how I felt about that. My mom had remarried when I was 16 or 17, and I looked at him like, "Who is this man?" I was such a mama's girl that when I came to college I was kind of lost. My freshman and sophomore year, I was just aimlessly going through the motions.
             
People don't realize how big of a change it is going from high school to college. Everything about my life was a complete 180. I didn't eat the same, I didn't sleep the same, I didn't socialize the same, I didn't practice the same, I didn't go to class the same, I didn't study the same. Nothing that I ever knew in my life even mattered at that point.
             
My freshman year at Baylor, I really started struggling on the track. I wasn't producing, I wasn't improving, and I was just really down on myself. I'm this 6A state champion, school record-holder, full-scholarship athlete who can't even score a single point at conference. It really started to make me feel like, "Oh well, this is the end, I guess I'm just here for an education at this point."
             
I thought I could come to this school, make a huge difference and leave my mark. But, obviously, God has other plans for me, so I'm just going to aimlessly go through the motions until it's my time to walk the stage.
           
Those first two years, I also dealt with a lot of injuries. My freshman year, I pulled my hamstring at the conference outdoor and didn't get to compete at regionals and nationals. Ten weeks later, I was able to start running again, and Coach Ford took me to the USA Junior Championships. I was thinking, "Great, this is my time to get back out there and shine." And that had to be probably the worst track meet of my life. I think I ran like a 13 in the 100. I remember going up to Coach Ford and telling him, "I quit! I've done nothing indoor season to prove that I deserve to be here. I've done nothing outdoor season to prove that I deserve to be here. And now I'm running 13s in the 100. I quit!"


 
I'll never forget this. Coach Ford looked at me and said, "Don't you ever, in your life, tell me what you are or aren't going to do, again. I will see you tomorrow when it's time for the 200." I walked away, just livid. I was like, "I hate this school, I hate all these coaches, this is embarrassing. I'm tired of this, leave me alone." But, I got back out there the next day and ran the 200, and I did even worse. I basically gave up on myself.
             
Starting my sophomore year, I felt that. I felt like I had already given up on myself. My whole fall training was just whatever, just mediocre. My season, same thing, just mediocre, going through the motions. And then once again, at conference outdoors, I got hurt. That's when I fractured my toe. At the time, they didn't really know it was fractured, it was just hurting. So, I told them I would try to run at regionals. I had a qualifying mark. I tried to run, but ended up pulling my hamstring, so then I was like, "OK, I'm done. Track is not for me. Can I just get my degree, and y'all just leave me alone?"
                    
Over that summer, I remember sitting down with Coach Ford and telling him that I'm not a short sprinter. I don't know what I am, but I'm not a short sprinter. The 100 is not for me, the 60 is not for me. I keep getting injured. I just can't do it. And I told him that I'd like to try to the 400. He was like, "No one ever goes up in events. If anybody wants to change, they want to go down." But, I wanted to try the 400. Just let me try it and see what happens.
            
At conference indoors, I made it to the finals in the 400. Hey, I can finally score a point. Maybe this will be OK. And from that day forward, I completely re-evaluated myself on and off the track. It was almost as if the light shined through the clouds and just touched me. That's when I won my first-ever conference championship in the 400, out of the slow heat. I wasn't even projected to make the final, and I ended up running 52.65 out of the slow heat. It really shook me. And then I saw just the joy and the light in Coach Ford's face as he ran over and picked me up and swung me around. I was ecstatic, just screaming, "Oh my God, I just won a conference championship! I can't believe this is happening." As I'm taking in the moment, Coach Ford says, "You just qualified for nationals!"
          
Everything in my life, from that point, changed. I stopped being negative about myself. I started to actually believe that I could do something, like I could make a difference, I could be a leader, I could have people look up to me. I could show these coaches and show everybody who believed in me and supported me all throughout elementary school, middle school, high school, that this is what they worked hard for. This is why you recruited me. This is why you believed in me. You guys saw something in me that I didn't even see in myself.
           
That also made me realize what I want to do in life. I want to become a coach. That look and that feeling – both when Coach Ford told me not to ever tell him what I am and not going to do again, and when he told me I'm a conference champion and going to nationals – gave me the exact same feeling. That's the kind of motivation and belief that I want to give to young girls and young guys who probably feel like their life doesn't matter. It's not necessarily that I felt like I didn't deserve anything. I just felt like, "Why should I matter? Why is my life that much more important for someone to believe in me this much, or for someone to push me this much?"


           
Going into conference outdoors that year, I think I still had a little of that mediocre mindset. I remember being like, "Oh my God, I won indoors, everyone's going to expect me to win outdoors, too.' Because indoors, I wasn't even trying to win, I just did it. So now that I'm trying to win, will I try too hard and mess up? I ran 52-flat in the prelims, and I was in the training room getting treatment, and Bro K (trainer Kevin Robinson) said, "I wouldn't be surprised if you broke the record." I ran down the hallway to see what the school record was, and it was 51.4. And I was like, 'Nah, not tomorrow, maybe next year."
             
The next day, I went out there and ran my race, I executed, I crossed the line. And that initial scream was because I won. And then, I looked up at the board and it was 51.22. I just broke the record! And I didn't even know what the record was until the day before. I couldn't believe it. I don't even know what type of athlete I'm turning into at this point. But, thank God this is happening. Thank God I'm having this constant affirmation that I am where I'm supposed to be. And that, in His time, things will happen as they're supposed to happen.
           
This year, I won't say it's been a struggle, but I've just tried to be patient. I won the conference indoor championship again with a school-record mark of 52.18. Outdoors, I've been dealing with the same reoccurring toe injury that I had my sophomore season, but I'm not going to let it bring me down negatively. Conference outdoors definitely didn't go as planned, from winning three conference titles in a row to getting sixth. That really crushed my pride and had me down, but I had to pick myself back up before the 4x4 relay and ran a 51 split.
             
I left that meet telling myself that I'm thankful for the Big 12. I'm thankful for being a part of the team that won our first-ever Big 12 championship. I'm thankful for being able to win three individual titles. There are people who never even become all-conference, so I can't look at this one meet and let that define me. I know there are bigger things ahead of me – regionals, nationals and hopefully the USAs.
            
I'm back out here at practice today, grinding like that never happened, and just ready to get to Sacramento and reaffirm the things my coaches have been believing in me and put my practice into play. I feel I'm destined for greatness, and I'm going to do whatever it takes to fulfill that destiny.
 
I really appreciate Coach Ford, I really appreciate my mom, I really appreciate my stepdad, because he came into my life and showed me a love that I didn't have before, a fatherly love. When they first got married, I was like, "I don't want anything to do with you." But, he took me in as his own and he didn't look at me as a stepchild or his wife's daughter. He calls me his daughter, and he supports me as if he's known me my whole life.


            
Graduating from a prestigious school like Baylor University and getting my degree in health/kinesiology is such a huge accomplishment. Goodness gracious, if you only knew. Things that I learned in the classroom, like how to deal with injuries and sports psychology, those are things I can actually use out here on the track to motivate myself more. And it's really helped me find my path and my calling, because coming into college I had no idea what I wanted to do. I really want to be a coach and I want to stay in this sport, because track has given me so much from the age of 6 to 22, and I want to give back everything I possibly can. I want to motivate and I want to be that one person that little kids can have that believe in them and that think they're not mediocre. Not just sell them dreams, but dream with them.

Previous Champions' TriBUne Features
Men's Golf - Garrett May (May 9, 2019)
Women's Golf - Maria Vesga (May 2, 2019)
Acrobatics & Tumbling - Camryn Bryant (April 25, 2019)
Equestrian - Shannon Hogue (April 16, 2019)
Women's Tennis - Angelina Shakhraichuk (April 9, 2019) 
Women's Basketball - Lauren Cox (March 22, 2019)
Track & Field - Wil London (March 7, 2019)
Men's Basketball - Jake Lindsey (March 4, 2019)
Softball - Nicky Dawson (Feb. 21, 2019)
Baseball - Josh Bissonette (Feb. 14, 2019)
Men's Tennis - Will Little (Jan. 31, 2019)
Men's Basketball - King McClure (Jan. 17, 2019)
Women's Basketball - Chloe Jackson (Jan. 3, 2019)
Football - Blake Blackmar (Dec. 13, 2018)
Volleyball - Braya Hunt (Nov. 29, 2018)
Soccer - Jackie Crowther (Nov. 16, 2018)
Cross Country - Alison Andrews-Paul (Nov. 8, 2018)
Football- Ira Lewis (Nov. 6, 2018)