The 5-foot-8 sophomore broke the tape at the NCHSAA 4A State Championships, clocking the fastest all-class time of the day in 17:50.64 to finish 12.04 seconds ahead of her next-closest competitor. The state’s top performer in finishing second at the prestigious Great American Cross Country Festival, Alder ran a personal-best time of 17:28.00, which ranks as the fastest girls 5K in North Carolina last fall. She also finished 10th at the Nike Cross Nationals Southeast Regional championships in 18:19.70. Alder won nine of 11 races during the 2018 campaign and clocked a sub-18 5K a state-best three times.
Alder has maintained a weighted 3.63 GPA in the classroom. She will begin her junior year of high school this fall.
A leader in her church community’s Young Women’s service organization, she has volunteered on behalf of Days for Girls, providing humanitarian aid to worldwide refugees, as well as the Special Olympics. The daughter of a former Ecuadorian women’s national team runner, she has launched a youth running clinic in Ecuador in addition to volunteering stateside at a local bookstore and donating her time to the Helping Hands Organization in multiple hurricane clean-up efforts. A participant in a weekday bible study class and a member of her church choir, she is also part of her school’s Future Business Leaders of America club.
