Zoya Turk wasn’t always the ¨Fastest Girl at Penn High School¨. She claims that as a freshman, she was just average, but since then she has worked hard to get where she is today.
Growing up, her older brother Shameer Turk encouraged her to get into sports. Zoya Turk has played soccer almost her whole life, but her love for track started in middle school.
¨In eighth grade all of my friends did track so I decided to do it too. I was pretty good and it was a lot of fun,¨ said Turk.
Turk swung for varsity soccer her freshman year, and also lettered for track.
¨During my sophomore soccer season I was benched. I didn’t really play a lot like I did with JV my freshman year,¨ Turk said. ¨Being benched like that showed me that my dreams won’t come easy. After soccer season I started to do everything I could to get ready for track¨.
She states that in her winter free time, she lifted weights, ran extra sprints, and did plyometrics. She did just about everything to set herself apart from the average.
¨Eventually I started going to speed training again and I was winning,¨ Turk said.
When it was time for her sophomore season on the track team, the difference a year had made really showed. She worked consistently at her block starts and top speed. Turk was consistently getting faster and beating her own times, not to mention her teammates and opponents.
¨I run the 100M, 200M, and 400M. My favorite is the 200 and It’s my strongest event,¨ Turk said.
She went to regionals in 2024 for the 200M and went to state the same year as an alternate for the 4x400M.
Now in the midst of her Junior Soccer season, Turk is a starter and a great component of the Penn Girls Soccer team. She went from only receiving about 20 minutes of playing time per game to starting and playing the majority of games.
Gwen Eiler, the Varsity goalkeeper for Penn Girls Soccer and one of the teams’ captains says that Turk is a great teammate.
¨Zoya has a really good work ethic and the ¨want to¨ mentality that Coach Cates encourages. She is my weight partner and is always ready to work hard and get after it,” Eiler said.
Turk says that even though she is already the fastest girl in the school, and has come a long way, it is certainly not the end.
¨I was being beaten by people who are naturally talented and fast. All I had to do was work harder than them,” Turk said. ¨I’m going to continue to work hard to get better and to be the best version of myself”.
