This week we caught up with Lakeland's women's basketball and track & field athlete Lydia Levra. Levra has had a strong start to the track & field season after transitioning from basketball.
What year are you currently in at Lakeland and what is your major/minor?
I’m a freshman and I declared my major as exercise science, but I have not yet decided on an emphasis.
What are you looking to do after graduating from Lakeland?
I haven’t decided what I want to do after graduation, so I haven’t made many plans in that direction.
What made you choose Lakeland? Was there anything that made Lakeland stand out from any other schools you were looking at?
I chose to come to Lakeland because it was one of the closer schools that I was recruited to, and I liked that it was in a rural area.
Do you have a favorite sport between basketball and track & field?
I don’t have a favorite sport between basketball and track, which is why I wanted to participate in both at the collegiate level.
On the basketball team you are a very good defender who doesn’t shoot very often, is that your goal to be a good defender and help the team in that way? Have you always played a more defensive role on your basketball teams? What kind of energy do you try to bring to your team through your defense, and how does that help the rest of the squad feed off your intensity?
I think my goal in any sport is to put my best effort towards the task at hand, whatever that may be. In terms of basketball, I come from a high school program that really excelled at being defensively disciplined, so I’m thankful to have that background, and I attribute my defensive minutes this year to that experience. Offensively, I’ve never been the leading scorer on a team I’ve played on. My senior year of high school, I led my conference in assists, despite not being a point guard, and despite shooting 35 percent from the three-point line. That said, getting off a high volume of shots has never been a strength of mine, but I've always just been happy to use whatever strengths I do have, whether they be defensive or offensive, to help my team towards a win, which is something that has translated to college as well.
In your first competition after basketball, you managed to win the 400m and place third in the 200m. How did you prepare for the transition from basketball to track, and how did you feel going into your first race of the season?
To be honest, I didn’t really have much time to prepare for the transition from basketball to track. Basketball ended, and less than a week later I was practicing for track. That said, my main goal before my first meet was just to get into the best shape I could before competing, which meant that most of my preparation simply involved showing up to practice and pushing myself.
Once that first meet came around, I was really nervous, because I hadn’t competed in a year, and I didn’t know what my times were going to look like. However, I felt prepared, and I was excited to compete, so that helped balance out the nerves that I had.
How do you plan to build on the momentum from your first couple meets as the season continues?
Now that I’ve had a few meets, my focus is going to continue to be working hard and holding myself accountable.
