Iowa may be home to the four-sport athlete, but a five-sport athlete is a little rarer.

Northwood-Kensett junior Kate Hartman decided this spring to run track in addition to golf. She already plays volleyball in the fall, basketball in the winter, golf in the spring and softball in the summer. On top of all that she is a cheerleader and plays AAU basketball.

Already a very active teenager her parents didn’t mind her taking on another sport.

“I know that track is a great sport for helping you throughout your other sports,” said her father Steve Hartman, who is also the girls’ golf coach. “I was all for it. I ran track in high school. I was happy she was doing it.”

Dad had one reservation about her taking on track.

“At first I thought it was going to hurt her golf a little bit,” Steve said. “That first meet it looked like it did, but she’s come back strong in the last couple.”

The biggest skill she has learned from the experience has nothing to do with athletics, instead it’s time management.

Hartman uses her study hall wisely to complete her homework and makes sure it’s all done before she goes to bed at 10 o’ clock at night.

“Since I was younger, I’m not one that goes out on weekdays,” she said. “I spend time at home doing my homework.”

She’s maintained a 3.4 grade-point-average and has followed the example her sister set.

Her sister was a straight-A student involved in sports and extra-circulars like choir, band and drama.

“She does need some prodding some times,” Steve said. “‘Is your homework done?’ Sometimes she gets a little cranky with it. So far it’s been getting done.”

Her days begin at 5:30 a.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Friday to practice pitching for the upcoming softball season. After that it’s off to speed, agility, quickness training — all before school even starts.

She gets to sleep in Tuesdays and Thursdays, she only gets up at 6 a.m. Weekends are filled with AAU basketball, either practice or tournaments across the area.

It’s not a typical schedule for teenagers but Hartman is not your typical teenager.

She decided to go out for track this season to improve her overall fitness and prepare her for next season on the basketball court. Hartman is an all-state player who averaged 21 points and 16 rebounds a game last season.

Juggling golf and track at the same time has occasionally meant doing both on the same day.

Hartman had a track meet and a golf meet on the same day last Thursday. After shooting a 49 to earn medalist honors Hartman rushed over to the track meet, which was also at Nashua.

Why go to such extremes?

“At times we question her, but she loves to compete and so far she’s handled it,” Steve said.

She’s not only getting better conditioning from track, she’s also harnessing some of the mental aspects of the sport.

“Track is really making me mentally strong,” she said. “You wanna quit, it’s hard, whatever, you have to run fast or whatever, but I believe that will help me with my other sports.”

The gregarious 17-year-old still finds a way to have fun with her friends in her spare time. If not for a cell phone she wouldn’t have much of a social life.

“It gets tough because I do like to hang out with my friends and I don’t have like so much time to do that, but I always find a way to hang out with them and I’m always on my phone texting and talking to them still,” she said.

Oh, Hartman was able to squeeze prom in last weekend, it happened to fall on a weekend where she had nothing else going on.