Lieke Vreugdenhil

Lieke started doing Track and Field when she was 12 years of age. She joined her local club team AV Statina and has been training there since. At first Lieke used to train with a multi-event group, but running events were always her favourite. After training heptathlon for a while, she decided to look for a specific distance group, but within her track club there wasn’t a good fit for her. Finally, at age 17, AV Statina started a new distance group. Lieke joined this training group is still training here with the same coach. She made lots of progress very quickly since she specialised in running only. 

Her major strengths are her motivation and speed. Lieke has an excellent kick at the end of her races, where she can push herself beyond her limits during the last stage of a race. Moreover, she is a very hard worker and always gives a 100% effort both at practice and meets. An area of improvement is her aerobic capacity. Lieke is currently working to improve her endurance to maintain her speed. She is gradually increasing her training volume by adding mileage every week. We strongly believe there is still much room for improvement if Lieke keeps developing herself athletically, especially considering she is only focussing on distance running only for a few years yet. 

Lieke had various successes throughout her short running career so far, but she is mostly proud of the development she made over the past few years. This past indoor season (22-23) she finished 3rd at the Dutch National Championships for students in the 1500m running an 8 second PB. Moreover, Lieke also cut down her 3000m personal best time with almost 40 seconds during her first race of the 2023 outdoor season. 

Her PB’s:

800m: 2:23,931500m: 4:58,243000m: 10:53,265k road: 19:22min

In the USA, Lieke’s primary goal is to keep running PB’s, perform at het absolute best for her college track team and keep developing herself as an athlete. In short, she would like to get the maximum out of her collegiate career and also keep running after college racing National Championships. 

Lieke graduated from high school in 2021 and she is currently in her 2nd year of her Bachelor in Psychology at Tilburg University. She is expected to graduate in the Spring of 2024 and is interested in doing a Masters degree in Developmental, Clinical or Child and Adolescent Psychology.