IU runners define student-athlete

When the IU women's cross country team gets back from an away meet, the last thing it wants to do is spend several hours hitting the books. But they do it anyway.\nAnd hitting the books has led the team to the highest athletic team GPA of any program on campus with 12 athletes earning Academic All-Big Ten honors. \nThis weekend the team heads to Terre Haute to run in the Pre-NCAA meet, one of the most competitive of the year. And although the Hoosiers' season is entering its most difficult and crucial weeks, team members do not have a break from academics or midterms. \n"I'm pretty organized with my time management. I even balance a job too," junior Lindsay Hattendorf said. \nHattendorf, a health education major, knows how important it will be to have a strong academic résumé once her running career is finished. \n"If I go further in running that's great, but I'm not going to be running when I'm 60 years old and making money off of it," she said. "I need another job to do that so I need the academics first."\nThroughout the year, the team is faced with many long and exhausting road trips. However, they are not forced to study; they do it because they want to. Good grades are not only an NCAA requirement to compete, they are also important for runners receiving athletic scholarships and academic aid. \n"I think maybe 25 to 30 percent of them have academic aid," head coach Judy Wilson said.\nThe team's studying is not limited to rides to and from Bloomington, as many take their work on the road.\n"Books always come with me," said senior Kelly Siefker. "We have people in classes together and can help each other on the road."\nWilson tries to instill this academic drive in her runners. She tells them what the team average is and asks them to think about where they stand compared to that average. \n"I started that a couple of years ago and it kind of fed off of their competitive juices a little bit," Wilson said. "This is a competitive group. We'll use it in academics too."\nOne of the Hoosiers' most competitive runners on the national scene is junior All-American Jessica Gall. In addition to being a nationally recognized athlete, she is also one of the more ambitious scholars on the team. Gall is majoring in political science and Spanish and wants to attend law school after graduation.\nThe team's crowning achievement as student-athletes came at the end of last year when they won the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee's first CHAMPS/Life Skills competition, "The Challenge". The Hoosiers excelled in all four categories: academic achievement, personal development, community service and Hoosier pride and Student-Athlete Advisory Committee participation. The team was recognized for its dedication to these areas in a formal dinner reception at IU President Adam Herbert's house.\n"We had worked hard all year long in the community, athletics and academically, so it was quite an honor to be there," said Siefker.