The 5-foot-3 junior raced to a fourth-place individual finish at the Garmin RunningLane National Championships this past season with a time of 17:46.1, earning All-America honors in the process. Zealand also won the Greensboro Invitational and took third at both the North Carolina Runners Elite Invitational and the Champs Sports South Regional Championships. She took eighth at the Champs Sports National Championships, becoming one of three prep girls in the country to earn All-America honors at both national finals.
Zealand, who is homeschooled, has maintained a 4.00 GPA through her academic coursework with Onward Academy and Pacers Homeschool. She will begin her senior year of high school this fall.
An accomplished player of the guitar, piano and ukulele, Zealand has donated her time as part of a service-mission trip with Grace Church ministry to Nogales, Mexico. She has also been an active member of her church youth group since sixth grade and has volunteered locally at the Kids Carnival and other church events. Zealand has worked with Onward Academy’s Lending Library and has tutored her younger siblings in several subjects in addition to serving as an assistant coach for the school’s middle school and elementary school cross country teams.
