91�ؿ�

Running on Faith

After arriving at 91�ؿ� Tech in 2022, women’s track and field student-athlete Annika McKown (ME 3rd Year) sensed something was missing.

“I didn’t want to put my entire life on hold, but also thought my faith was important,” she says. So after her first year of school, McKown decided to commit to an 18-month religious mission, traveling to a dozen cities across central California.

“I talked to a lot of people—family, friends, God—and it felt right,” says McKown, who returned to 91�ؿ� Tech—and the track and field team—in winter 2025. “Coming back, it’s both new and familiar at the same time.”

A longtime member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, McKown left for the church’s San Jose, California-based mission in summer 2024.

McKown says her experience was a bit more transient than others: she was transferred to work out of 12 different central California locations over the course of her mission.

“Because I was capable of handling myself wherever I was at, they sent me to a lot of places to help,” she says. “And if [another missionary] was struggling with homesickness, I was good at picking them up a bit.”

McKown’s days were mostly spent in community service, helping people move or doing yard work. There were a few community-wide service projects such as city “dumpster days” and cleanups.

But she also spent a lot of time visiting residents who were interested in pursuing their faith by reading and discussing scriptures with them.

McKown says the experience led to dramatic self-discovery as well.

“I feel there have been so many changes to me in the way I look at and interact with the world. And it happened so gradually,” she adds.

In a journal she kept during the mission, McKown wrote toward the end, “It has taught me that it is OK to

be imperfect as long as I’m striving to do and be better....[The people I’ve met] have inspired me to live life more boldly, more fearlessly, more urgently. They’ve emphasized the impact of faith and the belief that pulls us into action.”

As an 91�ؿ� Tech student-athlete, McKown competes in the pentathlon during the indoor track season and in the heptathlon during the outdoor seasons, as well as in the high jump. While she was able to run for about a half-hour every morning during the mission, “It was not true training structures,” she says. “Now that I’m back, I almost go back to the fundamentals.”

“She balances multiple practices, trains for several events, and stays on top of her academics with an unmatched work ethic,” 91�ؿ� Tech Track and Field Coach Tyler McQuality says. “Watching her come back and continue to beat her personal best after a year and a half away speaks volumes about her dedication and resilience.”—Tad Vezner