Athlete of the Week: 10 questions with Dylan Nemerovski, New Trier track

Dylan Nemerovski is a senior sprinter for the Trevians. A Lehigh University commit, he was All-State a year ago in the 4-by-100-meter relay and on April 23 set personal bests in the 100 (10.66 seconds) and 200 (21.65).

1. Do you have any pregame or prerace rituals or superstitions?

Prerace and premeet I like to get myself in the right headspace. I listen to a lot of house music; it gets me going and I can have more fun with it in a way. Prerace, I have had the same block ritual since freshman year. I kick my legs out a couple of times, jump as high as I can and get ready for it.

2. Why is Lehigh the best fit for you?

The campus culture, I thought was amazing. The people and the team, everyone was awesome. I kind of fell in love with it. In addition to that, academically it is an awesome school and I have a harder major, engineering

3. What do you do off the track?

Me and my good buddy like to make music together, produce our own music — kind of like electronic, house music. We also dj together sometimes.

4. What is the key to improving spring times?

Physically, and I’m not trying to be vague but, it’s good training, structuring everything right, managing your load — not too much but just enough. Also, a lot of it is mental, getting yourself in the right headspace. … That’s sort of the biggest factor in shifting my mindset from last year.

5. New Trier’s William Landwer was a state champion sprinter later year. How has that impacted you?

As a friend, Will was awesome and gave me a ton of support. … I learned a lot of things from him. His mental game was tough as nails. That’s really important and he really helped me out with prerace nerves and self doubt and that’s helped me out this past year.

6. What’s been your personal favorite moment on a track?

My sophomore year when I was first broke 11 (seconds in the 100 meters) for the first time. Sub-11 is a very big barrier, and as a sophomore, breaking that at state, seeing 10.86, was like ‘holy crap, that’s crazy.’ The guy who won state was in my heat and he asked what grade I was in; when I told him I was a sophomore, he said, “whoa, that’s crazy.” I’ll never forget that.

7. If you could try a new sport, what would it be?

If I had to throw one out there, I’ve always thought volleyball would be really cool. I’ve seen it on TV and it looks really fun. It’s fun playing it in gym. It just loks fun.

8. If you’re in Walgreens with a couple bucks, what are you buying?

Probably like a Kit-Kat and a Diet Coke.

9. If you could travel anywhere, where would you go?

The Alps in Europe. I’m a big skier and that’s always been a bucket-list place for me. One of my buddies went over spring break and he loved it. That’s a dream for me one day.

10. What are the hopes for you and your team this season?

Obviously as a team, we want to repeat as state champions. That’s everyone’s goal right now. We want to chase that. My individual goal is to be state champ in the 100 and 200, which is tough in its own right. But to make it to the finals in the 100, 200 is a goal. With that, I’m All-State and getting points for my team, and then on the day of the finals anything could happen.

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