MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Ripley cross country and track standout Tori Starcher has signed with Stanford University. She put pen to paper on her scholarship offer Wednesday in a ceremony at Ripley High School.
“When I visited Stanford, the first time stepping on campus it was something I had never seen,” Starcher said. “There were palm trees and it was really sunny. It was a beautiful campus. The team was so welcoming and it was almost like they already knew me. I fit in really well and I think that was a big part of it.”
“You aren’t able to run forever so I ultimately I want to get a really nice degree. Obviously Stanford is a great place to do it. They are top five in the country for academics.”
Starcher has won all twelve events she has competed in at the state high school track championships (9 individual, 3 relays) and has guided the Vikings to consecutive state team championships.
She set a new meet record in the mile run at the Penn Relays in April (4:38.19). Starcher attracted interest from a number of top-level Division 1 programs, including Oregon. On October 9th, Starcher verbally committed to compete at Notre Dame.
Starcher continues to rehab a lower leg injury that forced her to miss most of the state cross country season this fall. “I had to take several weeks off just because it was a pretty bad fracture but yesterday I had my third X-ray and it is pretty clear and it looks like I am ready to go.”
(Joe Stevens contributed to this report)