 The hikers conquered Kilimanjaro’s Barranco wall midway through their trek. Photo Courtesy Of Yasmin Pirbhai |
Gladys, Va.—Nov. 21, 2025- When Purdue University IHSA hunter seat coach Kathryn Kraft first met with her team at the start of the 2024-2025 season, she shared three motto words that she hoped to inspire her squad for the year: intentional, gritty and grateful. Every practice she and her students would speak about the words, and before and after each show they would come back to the terms to stay focused. What Kraft didn’t know is that those words would be just as inspirational to her athletes outside the saddle as in it.
In January of 2025, then-IHSA team president Yasmin Pirbhai led a trip of 10 Purdue women to hike Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. As her father was born in Tanzania and her parents run a local safari and trekking company, Pirbhai had hiked the mountain—which at over 19,000 feet is the highest in Africa and one of the Seven Summits—four times already. Eager to share that magical experience with others, she started planning the trip for over two years before they took off. Fellow IHSA team members Audrey Hostrawser and Corynn Montgomery were among the first to sign up.
Purdue IHSA teammates Audrey Hostrawser, Corynn Montgomery and Yasmin Pirbhai
climbed Kilimanjaro a few months before the team won the IHSA National Championship.
Photo Courtesy Of Yasmin Pirbhai
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The seven-day hike isn’t a technical one requiring ropes and lots of special equipment, but that’s not to say it’s easy. The journey would test all 10 women physically, but to Hostrawser the bigger challenge was mental. After a day and a half of building discomfort, Hostrawser was feeling altitude sickness acutely, with her stomach and head feeling awful. By the third day she was considering turning back, when her mind turned to the three words that she heard repeated in her team practices.
“Nothing feels good when you’re on the mountain,” she said. “But bringing the intentionality and the grit together was really important to make sure that I could stay on the mountain.”
After hitting a wall, Hostrawser mentally broke through as her body adjusted to the altitude. She was grateful to get to enjoy the scenery on the rest of the trip, especially the extraordinary trees and a glacier.
(L) After conquering her mental demons early on the hike Audrey Hostrawser managed to summit Kilimanjaro. (R) Leader Yasmin Pirbhai started planning the Mount Kilimanjaro hike more than two years before the group set off. Photos Courtesy of Yasmin Pirbhai
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The biggest physical challenge came on Day 5, when the group summited the mountain, which meant hiking through the night to reach the apex, then heading down to base camp before the final day of descent. The climbers celebrated their accomplishment by visiting a hot spring and volunteering at an orphanage before heading back home.
The concepts of intentionality, grit and gratitude continued to inspire the IHSA team the rest of the season, which culminated in winning the IHSA National Championship in Tryon, North Carolina. Kraft attributed her team’s success to hard work, a little luck and an emphasis on their mental game.
Corynn Montgomery, Audrey Hostrawser and Yasmin Pirbhai celebrated reaching the summit of Kilimanjaro.
Photo Courtesy of Yasmin Pirbhai
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“The team all does a great job of being correct in the saddle, but you know those top teams have to have that extra sparkle, that extra greatness that is above that,” said Kraft. “I think [the motto words] are the things we really focus on and that helped our mental preparation.”