Meet The Volk Sisters
 
Meet Kortnie Volk and Kallie Volk, sisters on the Milwaukee track & field team. Born three years apart, Kortnie is in her fourth year as a Panther, while Kallie is beginning her first.
 
The Volks grew up in a very active family in Three Lakes, Wisconsin, playing multiple sports and partaking in a variety of hobbies and activities. So, why track & field?
 
"I actually just kind of fell in love with it, as kind of an accidental thing that I found out I was good at," Kortnie said. "My older sister Karlie played softball, so my dad figured I would play softball too. I always had to play up, being from a small town where there weren't enough girls my age for a team, and I just told my dad that I didn't love the sport."
 
"He said 'okay, if you're not going to do this, you need to find something else that you're going to do'," Kortnie continued. "So, I decided that I was going to try track, I was going to try running. I went to a practice and just fell in love with it and thought that maybe this could go somewhere, like I'm pretty good at this. That's just kind of how it blossomed and started for me."
 
The switch from softball to track & field as a primary sport came early for Kortnie, somewhere in the range of 5^th and 6^th grade. "Ever since we could walk, our parents put us in different sports and activities," Kortnie said. "They really wanted us to be well rounded and active at a young age."
 
"My first race was actually a 5K that I wasn't even entered in. My dad just dropped me off at the start line and told me I was going to run it, and when I finished as the first female everyone was looking around wondering who this girl without a bib number was."
 
Kortnie's decision to pursue track & field was a big influence on the younger Kallie. "I've always looked up to my older sisters, so seeing Kortnie join track and be good at it, I wanted to be just like her," Kallie said. "So, I joined, and here we are. We both started off as distance runners, but kind of transitioned into jumping and sprinting where we found our strengths."
 
Everything was a competition for the Volk family growing up… Board games, seeing who could brush their teeth and get into bed the fastest, and obviously, sports. Now that the sisters are on the same team, they're still competitive but in a different way.
 
"I want her to do well as much as I want myself to do well," Kortnie said. "So, it's more supporting her so she can reach her highest potential."
 
"I think we both have our different strengths and weaknesses that fall into different areas as well," Kallie added. "That helps a little since it makes it so that we're not just constantly competing against each other. I can help her in some areas, and she can help me in some others."
 
Even though Kortnie and Kallie's high school careers overlapped and they could play basketball and run cross country together, they were unable to run high school track together because of the season's cancellation due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
"Track was the only sport we weren't able to play – or run – together in high school," Kortnie said. "And now that we're on the same college team it's starting to come full circle and we're kind of getting what we wanted and hoped for."
 
"We've always been close growing up," Kallie added. "So, not having that season together and now getting that opportunity to compete with each other was a big plus when I was deciding where to go. It's been really exciting and fun. It's super nice to have her here with me and I'm super happy with my decision."
 
"Having her here definitely adds to the mental aspect of the sport a bit," Kortnie said. "Not only do I want to set an example for the other freshmen on the team, but especially my sister. My freshman year, I ended up injured, so I want her to learn from my mistakes and not have to make them herself."
 
"There are some similarities between them for sure," head coach Andrew Basler said. "It took me and Kortnie a while to find that right balance between how hard she wants to push herself and how much rest her body needs to fully recover, but now we're at a good point where she's open about how she's feeling mentally and physically."
 
"And now you bring Kallie into the mix. She has the same kind of drive, wanting to do everything that I have down for workouts," Basler continued. "But I think Kortnie being here and now understanding the balance of when to rest and when to work has been huge in her mentorship of Kallie."
 
It was during Kallie's junior year of high school that the sisters started to realize they had a real chance to run on the same team in college.
 
"I hadn't really considered the possibility of running together until I was warming up one day in practice, and coach made a comment about how far Kallie had jumped in the triple jump," Kortnie said.
 
"I still have the text that she sent me that day," Kallie said. "She told me that Basler mentioned me in practice and that I should fill out the recruiting questionnaire, which is kind of how I ended up here."
 
The Volks, along with the rest of the Milwaukee track & field program, opened the 2023-24 indoor season on December 8^th at the DePaul Blue Demon Holiday Invite. Kortnie started her senior year off strong, winning the long jump with a mark of 5.52 meters. Kallie had a solid start to her own collegiate career, just missing the podium in the high jump with a mark of 1.63 meters for fourth place.
 
"It was really cool," Kortnie said. "I could tell she had some jitters for her first college meet, so I was just trying to go into it confidently and help her to do the same. Obviously, first meet, there are some jitters all around, and she did great."
 
The sisters tend to run similar paces in practice, which Kallie says helped her adjust to the difference between high school and collegiate track. "I don't even know how to pace myself yet, I just run with her," Kallie commented. "It's made the transition a lot easier. If I ever feel uncomfortable about something or just want a little extra support, I know I can always go to her."
 
According to Kortnie, the team's goal is to win the Horizon League Championships for both the indoor and outdoor seasons. In the past three seasons, Milwaukee has finished as the indoor runner up three times, the outdoor runner up twice, along with one third place outdoor finish two years ago.
 
The last time that the team won both the indoor and outdoor league championships in the same season was 2011, which was the second year in a row that the Panthers accomplished that feat. Since 1995, Milwaukee has won both the indoor and outdoor conference championships a total of five times. In that same timeframe, the Panthers have won one of the two championships an additional six times.
 
"Looking from the outside in, I've seen them come so close the past three years," Kallie added. "Obviously coming in I have that goal for the team and for myself, but I also want it for her so badly. So, I think that drives me too."
 
"It hurts, coming that close that many times," Kortnie said. "Now, being an upperclassman, I want to instill those same goals and that drive into the freshman. I think it would also just be such a cool and full circle moment if we were able to accomplish that big goal that the program has been working towards for so long, and to do it with my sister on the team with me."
 
"That's my goal right now, is just to have that final glory moment before I graduate."