Karen Marie Henriksen, a foreign exchange student from Denmark, is adding to her adventure in the United States by joining the the KCHS Cross Country team.

    Henriksen is very excited to join the Cross Country team because it’s a completely new experience for her.  She has only participated swimming before, and describes it as her favorite sport.  The reason she decided to join Cross Country was to get into shape.

    She describes her first practices as very hard and hot. The most she has run before is 2 kilometers in a triatholon she competed in the fifth grade.  She ended up taking first place in that competitive race.  The weather in Denmark is not much different than here in King City. Karen Marie describes the weather back in Europe as the morning weather in King City, sunny and a little bit cold.  It remains like that throughout the whole day.

    “Karen Denmark” is what coach Daines calls Karen Marie.  When asked for the reason behind the nickname, he answers that there are three different runners with the name Karen on the team and the easiest way to identify Henrickson is by mentioning her native country.

    Her first cross country meet was at Toro Park, a 3.1 mile course in Salinas.  She describes it as a great experience in which she had a lot of fun.

    Her plans for this school year are to participate in the basketball, swim team and, if possible, the track team as well.