Bella Wolford begins her day with some core training, about 10 to 15 minutes.

Add some running and weightlifting and you’ll have just a bit of the routine of McDonald High School senior, who is determined to better herself as a middle-distance runner.

Next season, Wolford is taking her talents to Kent State University.

Mike Richards, who coached Wolford at McDonald as the team’s girls cross country coach, sees her excelling even more at KSU. He said she’ll gravitate to the strength training and could be a good miler.

“She does work extremely hard,” said Richards, who is now the girls track and field coach at Maplewood High School. “She does like getting in the gym, weight room and doing cross training. Those things are going to make her excel.”

Wolford was deciding between the University of Akron and KSU. She was impressed with the campus life and facilities, among a few other things.

“They made it a lot more comfortable for me to decide,” Wolford said.

She’s going to try a couple of cross country meets for the Golden Flashes next fall. For now, her focus is the spring and helping the Blue Devils advance as far as they can. Making this signing now helps that process.

She’ll look to run longer distances at the collegiate level, but loves running the 400- and 800-meter runs.

Richards thinks she can do a little more in the 800 and 1,600 runs to build her confidence.

“I know she can do it. She needs to prove that she can,” he said.