ONSTED — Onsted High School track star Emmry Ross went to the CIRCUIT New York City track meet in mid-February and proceeded to break her own U.S. No. 1 time in the indoor 800 meters with a time of 2:03.95.

A month later, this time at the New Balance Nationals Indoor, she not only broke that time, but in the process set a meet record — and a personal best time — at 2:03 flat.

Then in April at a meet in Napoleon, Mich., Ross set a national best in the outdoor 800 at 2:03.84.

And as if all that isn’t fast enough, “we think there’s two minutes in there” at some point, Rhonda Hubbard, Onsted’s varsity track and field coach, said.

To say that running is in the Ross family’s blood is an understatement. Her late grandfather, Phil Six, was a longtime holder of Onsted’s 400-meter record. Her parents, Daryl and Alicia, were athletes themselves. And all of her siblings and cousins — there are nine girls in all across two Ross families — are or have been high school runners.

Ross, now a senior, has been rewriting the record books throughout her high school career. Besides her national successes, she holds five school records, four in track and one in cross-country, and has a long list of Michigan High School Athletic Association accolades as well.

Last year, for example, she became one of only a few girls ever in MHSAA history to win four individual titles in a single meet, notching wins in the 400, 800, 1600 and 3200 meter events. In cross-country, just one of her honors was becoming the 2024 Girls Division 3 MHSAA Regional Champion.

“I don’t know what I’d do without running,” Ross said. “I’ve done it for so long, and I’ve surrounded myself with people who’ve done it for so long.” 

She especially enjoys the middle-distance track events because “you have to have speed but also endurance,” she said, whereas “in cross-country, you just have to endure.”

Her success is grounded in being committed to everything from following the right diet to strength training to practicing three or four hours a day almost every day.

And while all that’s a lot of work, “my team and my coaches and my family make it more fun,” she said.

Ross played volleyball and basketball in middle school in addition to running track. By the time the young woman got to high school, Hubbard knew she was going to be something special as a runner. “She has a nice stride,” the coach said. “It’s a running stride.”

And even though Ross has been demolishing records right and left, Hubbard describes her as someone who’s never satisfied to rest on her laurels.

“The individual success, she thrives on that,” she said, but Ross believes “there’s always room for improvement. She’s at the top of her peers now, but she’s always looking to be better.”

Longtime Onsted coach and MHSAA track official John Springer has plenty of his own praise for Ross, not only as a competitor but for her sportsmanship.

“She runs a race not to say ‘I beat you.’ She runs to compete, and she has great respect for the sport. I think she knows the sport will be here long after she’s gone,” he said.

As the track team’s captain both last year and this year, Ross leads the stretches and warmups “and encourages the team,” Hubbard said.

“You can’t put a better young lady in a leadership role,” the coach added. “Her focus, her work ethic, her sportsmanship — she may be the first one done, but she’s the last one standing there when everyone else finishes,” cheering her teammates on.

When she’s not competing or working on making herself a better runner, Ross is a mostly A student and is taking nursing prep courses at the LISD Tech Center. She also enjoys spending time with her family.

“We like to go up north a lot,” she said, traveling to the family’s cabin and enjoying activities ranging from, depending on the time of year, kayaking to snowmobiling and skiing.

Her next stop after high school is the University of Michigan, which recruited her for her prowess as a middle-distance runner and where she will study kinesiology. She also has the Olympics in her sights and has a long-term goal to be a professional runner.

For right now, however, as she finishes out her high school career, “I want to be the best athlete I can be,” she said. “But I also want to have people remember me as the best person I can be.”