TEN QUESTIONS WITH...

What are your goals for yourself in the hammer throw and shot put heading into this week’s NCAA East Regional at Manhattan College?
I want to qualify for nationals. I am pretty close with the hammer throw. Shot put may be a little tougher, but I want to go for it.

This week, you get to go to the Regional with Sarah Vance also competing in the hammer throw. Are you excited to get the chance to be able to compete with your teammate in the event this year, after the two of you qualified separately the last two years?
My junior year I went and then last year she went to the Regionals. Now, I’m happy to have a teammate here with me and it’d be a big deal if we both went to nationals together.

To go to the MAC Championships this year and set the MAC record in the weight throw, how nice is it to be able to leave that kind of mark as your career winds down?
It felt good. I was really happy to do that. Just to go out there and set the bar that high and get my name in the record books, I was thankful to do that.

Now that your season has been extended due to making Regionals, is it easier or harder to prepare for a meet with school out for the summer?
It’s much easier. You have more time to focus on sleeping and eating patterns. It’s much easier to focus on practice. You have more time to focus on the meet. You may get a little more nervous, but I’ve been working on that too.

As you enter the final meet of the season, especially after having trained for about eight months straight since the beginning of indoor track and field, does your practice schedule change at all?
It doesn’t change drastically. We just get together when we can get together. It’s just a little more convenient now because we can pick the time and there’s more flexibility.

Last year, you redshirted due to a shoulder injury. How tough was it for you to overcome the injury and to make the comeback this year?
It was really tough. It was still nagging me in November. My indoor season was just two months away, but thanks to physical therapy and my workouts I was able to get through it. But having an injury is a tough thing to get through, especially mentally.

Coming from just up the road in Niagara Falls, how happy have you been to see UB athletics start to become more competitive in the Mid-American Conference, from the basketball team to Jenny Koeppel and Jennefer Brankovsky earning Player of the Year honors in their sports?
I think it’s very good accomplishment. When one person or team does well, it speaks well for the University and I am very happy to be a part of that.

You were named to the Verizon Academic All-District Team twice along with being named to the MAC All-Academic Team and earning the MAC Scholar-Athlete of the Week award more than any other athlete this year. How nice is it to know that you are recognized as both a scholar and an athlete?
I’m very honored. It’s nice that people recognize that college athletes aren’t just athletes and that it takes a lot of work to be successful on both ends.

This year, you were a graduate student in school counseling. How much different have you found the graduate courses from the undergraduate courses you took?
There’s a lot more volume of work. I wouldn’t say the material is a lot more difficult, but the volume of work is what sets it apart. There’s a lot more detail, too, in your area of training.

What has been your favorite moment as a UB athlete?
Hopefully, I haven’t experienced it yet. But for right now, I have to say the MAC Championships and being able to go out and do that well in my last championship and having my competitors and other coaches come up to me and say that they enjoyed watching me these past four years and that they’d miss me. I was really humbled by that.

“The 10 Questions With…” feature is compiled by Joe Guistina.