Behind the young woman who enjoys baking banana bread and watching “The Great British Baking Show” is a fierce competitor her coach calls a “silent killer.”

Mililani junior Zola O’Donnell wasn’t born into a family of competitive runners, but the ferocity is certainly a family tradition. Her father, Mike, was a high school football player in upstate New York. Her mother, Mercedes, is a former gymnast.

O’Donnell has a 4.1 grade-point average — not including the first quarter of this academic year — and four AP classes on her plate. She also can run like no other girl in the OIA this season.

There was a point in the OIA cross country championships on Saturday when two of the best female harriers in the league more or less crossed paths.

One sent greetings to the other. The other, Emily Naylor of Kalaheo, was pleasantly surprised by the banter. O’Donnell’s teammates are never surprised by her calm, friendly demeanor.

“I was in sixth grade when I first met Zola. She is a very nice, confident, dependable and intelligent friend,” teammate Allison Iida said. “My favorite memories with her are sitting in class with her because she is a fun table buddy.”

Eventually, O’Donnell and Naylor, Western and Eastern division champions, went their separate ways. O’Donnell kept her unbeaten season going with a victory at Patsy T. Mink Central Oahu Regional Park. She finished the hilly course in 20 minutes and 17 seconds, well off her personal record of 19:35 on the course at Pearl City earlier in the season.

Naylor, who battled a non-COVID illness earlier in the week, finished second to help Kalaheo win the girls team title.

O’Donnell’s emergence as a junior has surprised even her coach.

“We had her as a freshman, so we knew she was pretty good. We didn’t move her up (to varsity) that year. Last year, she really started to shine in track, and cross country is a continuation of that,” Trojans cross country coach Nathan Aragaki said.

In three decades of coaching, Aragaki considers O’Donnell a different breed, in a sense.

“She’s totally unique. She doesn’t remind me of anyone I ever coached. She does her thing and that’s it. She’s a silent killer. I think it’s just something inside her. Can’t explain it,” he said.

One key in her ascent to the title is O’Donnell’s discipline, which now nearly matches her competitive fire.

“I think just kind of controlling herself because she wants to go all out from the beginning. She knows she’s going to burn out, so she has to hold herself back, realize that it’s 3 miles, kind of stay with the front-runners for a while,” Aragaki said. “When she feels it, then she kind of goes.”

O’Donnell had a 4.6 weighted GPA in the first quarter. Her AP classes are Calculus BC, Language and Composition, Biology and US History. Her favorite is calculus.

“I like a challenge, and I also like to get college credit. I think in the end it will save money if I have to do less college courses,” she calculated. “I like more complicated problems because I tend to mess up simpler problems.”

There is no class that offers the same tension and reward as a race in track or cross country. That competitive element is in O’Donnell’s core. So is the drama of every race. As a fan of “Star Wars” music, maybe one composition would make a fitting backdrop to a video of her victories.

“I like the Darth Vader theme song. I learned to play it on the piano,” she said.

Her namesake, Zola Christenson, is her great-grandmother on her mother’s side of the family tree. O’Donnell remembers seeing her years ago, while she was a toddler.

Mercedes O’Donnell couldn’t wait to name her first daughter after her grandmother.

“Grandma was a special person in our family. The funny thing is, (daughter) Zola says, ‘Why did you name me Zola?’ My grandma told me she didn’t like her name either.”

One day, Mercedes O’Donnell finally looked the name up.

“It means clot of earth,” she said.

It might as well mean many miles of earth covered by the feet of Zola O’Donnell. During the COVID-19 pandemic, racing was nonexistent, but running was life.

“I would go and run by myself. I would run 4 miles, usually in the evening. I think running by myself is when I need to focus and train. Running with other people is funner and better, more relaxing,” she said. “I can train with other people. They push me when I need to be pushed.”

Some days, she timed her 4-mile runs.

“I like to do a fast 4 miles one day and time it, and if it was pretty good, I would do a nice 2-, 3-mile run the next day. I didn’t run every day. Five days a week, or whatever felt good,” O’Donnell said.

Running wasn’t the only time outdoors.

“I walk with my parents a lot. Usually, we walk about 1 or 2 miles. We have my dog, too,” she said. “My whole life is walking.”

The joy of competing and winning isn’t quite the same alone. O’Donnell thrives with her friendships on the Trojans’ squad. Mililani finished just three points behind Kalaheo’s girls in the OIA championships. Next up are the Honolulu Marathon/HHSAA Cross Country State Championships on Saturday at the campus of Hawaii Preparatory Academy in Waimea on Hawaii island.

The hilly course there, with a mix of grass and asphalt surfaces, is what O’Donnell is familiar with, but she hasn’t run there before.

“We’d all like to do well in states, but at the end of the day, it’s doing our best that matters. You don’t want to leave a race thinking you didn’t give your all,” she said. “I think that it’s running, similar to running on Oahu. I’m expecting the course to be a challenge. It’s going to be intense. It’s states, girls I’ve never run against before.”

One competitor O’Donnell has run against before is Seabury Hall senior Kaylee Volner, who posted a time of 19:14 at the Maui Interscholastic League championships on Saturday.

Punahou senior Malia Dickhens continued her comeback trail, winning the ILH title on Nov. 20 with a time of 19:34 on a hilly Kamehameha course. Teammates Lauren Saunders (19:39) and Isabella Ford (19:43) were on her heels.

Mike O’Donnell had an inkling that his daughter would be an active person for life.

“When she was little, I was stationed in Germany and we used to visit cathedrals. She used to chase pigeons around the outside for 45 minutes nonstop. She was like 4 or 5 years old,” he recalled.

Her dream is to attend the U.S. Air Force Academy. Mike served in the Air Force for nine years and is now with the Hawaii Air National Guard.

When Zola was in elementary school, she got her first view of cross country runners.

“I thought, ‘Wow, these people are amazing. I could never.’ Then at (Mililani) middle school, I joined cross country,” she said. “That was in eighth grade. I started track in seventh grade.”

She runs the mile, 800-meter run and 4×400 relay during track season. Right now, the challenge this Saturday on the Big Island is a mystery and a puzzle worth solving.

“My favorite show is ‘Survivor’. It’s about resilience and survival,” O’Donnell said. “And, also, strategy.”

ZOLA O’DONNELL’S FAVORITES

>> TV shows: “Survivor,” “Once” and “The Great British Baking Show”

>> Food: Steak, furikake ahi and boba milk tea. “My dad (Mike) cooks steaks three times a week. My mom (Mercedes) sears the ahi once a week, or two weeks.”

>> Music artists: Ariana Grande, Camila Cabello

>> Class, teacher: AP Calculus BC, Mr. (Patrick) Riehle. “I think he makes math fun with his jokes and he’s good at helping people understand complicated concepts.”

>> GPA: 4.1 (prior to 2021-22 school year).

>> Time machine: “I’m really interested in ancient mysteries. I would like to see the ancient Nazca civilization in Peru. I want to see how they made the Nazca lines, these geoglyphs in the desert and they cover this huge area.”