Kyra Jefferson had never heard of the University of Florida.
A single conversation changed that.
The summer before her senior year of high school, Kyra met with future UF teammates Robin Reynolds and Arman Hall, who convinced her to take a look at the Gators before making her college decision.
"I was like, ‘What’s Florida?’" Kyra said. "I had only heard of FAMU and Florida State before I ever got recruited."
If that conversation never happened, Kyra would likely be wearing LSU’s gold and purple — the colors she grew up rooting for — or Texas A&M’s maroon and white.
If that conversation never happened, Kyra would never have become a seven-time Indoor All-American, a three-time Outdoor All-American or a 2015 National Champion in the 4x400 and 4x100 relays as a Gator.
But fortunately for Florida, she made it to Gainesville.
"I remember when I was picking schools, we were talking about do you want to be a big fish in a little pond, or a little fish in a big pond?" Kyra said. "(The Southeastern Conference) is a little pond, and I am trying to make myself a big fish."
• • •
Growing up in Detroit, Kyra didn’t always want to run track.
At the age of four, she tried out sports like basketball and volleyball, among others.
"She was a great swimmer at first," Kyra’s mother, Michele Watkins, wrote in an email. "Track wasn’t even something on her mind."
But Kyra couldn’t escape the fact that running track was in her DNA.
Watkins — who went by Michele Morris in college — was a seven-time All-American at LSU, and was a member of the 4x100 and 4x400 relay teams that won two national championships at the 1985 NCAA Outdoors.
Kyra’s dad, Thomas Jefferson, won a bronze medal in the 200-meter dash at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
With that background, Kyra began to run when she was around seven years old, her mother said.
"But we really did not know she found her stride until she was 12-13," Watkins said.
That’s when Kyra started running track competitively.
She would go on to compete in high school at Cass Technical, where she garnered the interest of collegiate track and field programs from across the country.
However, she heard nothing from Florida.
Or so she thought.
Though Kyra had been on the radar of then-Florida assistant coach Brian O’Neal, he had been unsuccessful in his many attempts to contact her mom.
Without the conversation Kyra had with Robin and Arman, she might never have known about coach O’Neal and Florida’s interest in her.
In Miramar at the 2011 Pan American Junior Athletics Championships — a competition for elite track and field athletes under the age of 19 — Robin asked Kyra why she wasn’t interested in Florida.
Kyra told her she hadn’t heard anything from UF.
"Robin was like, ‘Well girl, hold on. I’m going to call one of the coaches and see why he hasn’t been calling you,’" Kyra said.
Later in the meet, O’Neal met with Kyra and asked her why her mom wasn’t calling him back. That’s when he found out that Kyra’s mom had changed her phone number.
"So I gave him the right one and they talked at the meet," Kyra said.
"And from there, he gave me my date to come on my visit."
Later that fall, Kyra decided among the five schools she visited: Florida State, Florida, Texas A&M, Tennessee and LSU.
Even though she had grown up cheering for LSU, she decided that it wasn’t the best fit for her.
That decision didn’t disappoint her mother.
"We decided a long time ago that the decision where she would attend school had (to) be hers because she had to have the relationship with her coach and her teammates," Michele said.
"I was just glad LSU was one of her top five."
It came down to Texas A&M and Florida.
On her official visit to Florida in September of 2011, coach Mike Holloway gave Kyra a list of running progressions and times that he wanted her to achieve, year by year.
It was something no other coach had done for her.
She was sold.
• • •
Holloway knew that Kyra was going to be a special athlete early.
It was never a question.
"When I talked to her, she was very serious and focused," Holloway said.
"From the very first week or two that she was here, just watching her do things, I realized that she was even better than I thought she was."
But it would take Kyra longer to realize her decision of running for Florida was the right one.
That realization came during her sophomore year at the Razorback Invitational in 2013, when she broke a Florida school record for the first time.
"I was watching my other friends who went to Texas A&M excel and I was still running 23.4s," said Kyra, who had battled injuries the year before.
"My sophomore year I stepped out on the track for my opener and I ran a 23.06. I didn’t even know it was a school record, but then after that my time kept dropping."
Since then, Kyra has placed in UF’s top 10 in every indoor and outdoor event she has participated in except for one — the 100-meter dash.
She also holds the UF record in the 200-meter dash.
But you wouldn’t be able to tell by talking to her.
Her support system — coach Holloway, her mother and teammate Najee Glass’ mother Trina Glass — has kept her humble throughout the last four years, a feat that might be difficult for any other athlete that has reached her level of success.
Michele comes to every meet she can to support and push her daughter, which is something she cherishes.
"I enjoyed last year’s Florida Relay when she ran faster (than) me in the 400," she said.
"We are always comparing what her time is and mine at the same age."
Over the last four years, Michele has seen her daughter grow both as an athlete and as a person.
"Ky has matured on the track by being more of a leader and being open to change," Michele said. "She is more focused, accountable and responsible."
And now, competing in her last outdoor season with Florida’s name across her chest, Kyra is focused on making it her best yet, with goals of SEC, NCAA titles and beyond.
"The ultimate goal is to win nationals, and from there win USAs to make the Olympic team," Kyra said. "That is the ultimate goal."
• • •
During her storied four-year career, Kyra has shattered school and national records and has accomplished almost everything that a collegiate track star can.
She helped make Florida’s women’s track program nationally relevant again.
She embraced and lived up to the legacy left for her by her world-class runner parents.
She became a national champion.
But Kyra doesn’t want to be remembered for any of those things.
She would rather be known as the athlete who exceeded everyone’s expectations.
"I would like to be remembered as a hard worker, like the underdog," Kyra said.
"I wasn’t the fastest in my recruiting class. I wasn’t the best person at practice. I wasn’t the strongest person. But over time, I developed and became somebody that other people look up to just by working hard, praying and staying focused."
Contact Lauren Staff at lstaff@alligator.org and you can follow her on Twitter @lstaff27.
Kyra Jefferson runs during the 2016 Pepsi Florida Relays on April 1, 2016, at James G. Pressly Stadium.
