Only a second year at the University and Michaela Whitelaw is already taking names.
One such title is All-American. This winter Michaela competed with three other of Chicago’s finest women–Kayla Macdonald, Julia Sizek, and Jaleesa Akuoko–in the Distance Medley Relay at the Indoor Track NCAA Championships. These four outstanding woman broke the school’s record they had previously set by five seconds. Michaela ran her portion of the race, the twelve hundred (four hundred meters shy of a mile), in three minutes and thirty-nine seconds. This season for outdoor track, Michaela has also taken on the steeplechase. For those of you unfamiliar with track, the steeplechase is a three thousand meter race with barriers (the height of a hurdle), one barrier including a water pit. One has to jump over these barriers every lap, making for twenty-eight regular jumps and seven jumps with the water pit. Last weekend, Michaela made the all-time honor roll with her performance in the steeplechase.
Besides being an All-American, Michaela is a sister in the Delta Gamma sorority and a Women’s Athletic Association (WAA) representative. Michaela will help her fellow DG’s put on the Anchor Slam, Delta Gamma’s upcoming basketball fundraiser. As a representative of WAA, Michaela has meetings and events to attend to keep the organization relevant.
So let me break it down for you. Michaela’s average day would go something like this: class during the day to move her forward in her Biology major. She then heads to track practice where she spends at least three hours. After that, she hits the books to maintain her solid GPA. And she has weekly Delta Gamma chapter meetings. Michaela does all this all year around, every day, while keeping up her grades. If that’s not impressive, then you’ve probably never done it.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at U Chicago chapter.