Mallory Sanner was a dual sport athlete for three years here at Seton Hill playing both basketball and track and field. She just focused on track her final year due to planning for life after college.
As many of us could imagine, balancing sports schedules and school is quite the daunting task and it is tough to build a resume in that time. Now imagine that you are prepping for a sport in the fall that will start up in the winter. After that you are now in season with lifting, meetings, practices, and games filling your week.
Now after that sport ends around late February, you are jumping right back into similar physical activities that your body is trying to recover from that winter. Integrating meets, lifts, and personal workouts into your academic spring schedule is something that only few athletes can handle.
Doing this for three years can be very overwhelming and it is a smart decision to cut the schedule down for your senior year and get ready for life after college. By playing these two sports Sanner said these opportunities, “have taught me to be a hard worker even when times are tough.”
Photo courtesy of D.Clark/Setonian
Mallory Sanner has made this lifestyle a routine for the last three years of her life. Sanner said, “Basketball and track never run into each other. I am able to workout with basketball during that season and then when it is track season I work with them. It has definitely become a routine after the three years I have been doing it.” She said, “I honestly don’t know what my life at SHU would be like without doing either sport. They keep me busy and in shape and that’s what I like.”
Many student athletes love athletics because it gives them structure to their schedule. Without sports their lives may be unorganized and unproductive. With her major in education with a focus of Pre K-4th special education she has had to supplement time to work with kids around her sports schedule. Going into her senior year she decided to “hang up her shoes” and not play basketball in her last season. She had to be able to student teach her senior year and by playing basketball, practices would run into the time she would have with kids.
She is sad she is leaving the girls that she played alongside and the coaches that have helped her over the years, but she “wouldn’t have done it any other way.” The feeling is mutual of the people that she worked with because she was a big contributor to the team. Out of the twenty-seven games in the season of 2013-2014 she played twenty-six and played and an average of 21 minutes a game. She averaged six points a game and gave it her all out on the court for three years.
Basketball is not the only sport that she excelled in. Mallory Sanner throws javelin for the SHU track and field team where she is a Division II National Champion. In 2013 she threw the javelin 49.43 meters to claim the National Title. Her name hangs in the McKenna Gym on the track and field banner as a national champion. She has been a contender her final year as well.
Even though she has already graduated she is using her extra year of eligibility that she gained her freshman year when she redshirted. On top of competing this spring, she is student teaching at local elementary schools.
Mallory has loved being on both of the SHU teams throughout her academic career and she said, “I wouldn’t have traded it for anything.” Her experience as a Griffin is something that will stay with her for the rest of her life and she will be proud of. Her first experience of Seton Hill was something very similar to most Setonians. Sanner said, “I can remember coming my freshman year and being so excited to be a part of such a fun and beautiful community… Now when I look back to my freshman and sophomore years I can remember a few of the upperclassman and how much they have helped me.”
This attitude expressed by Sanner is very similar to many students over the years. Both in athletics and out of athletics, the upperclassmen are always willing to help and mentor the freshmen and sophomores. She also said, “Seton Hill has given me the opportunity to play the two sports I love while meeting some life-long friends in the meantime.”
Mallory Sanner graduated in May 2014, took the fall off and went back to work in track and field and is looking to get another National Title. After this year she will be looking for a job in special education in Virginia. She will also look for a coaching job either in basketball or track and field where she will spread her knowledge of the game.