Kaitlin Rodriguez of the women's indoor track team was selected as the recipient of the Total Package Award, sponsored by Anastasia Fitness, for the 2016-17 winter sports season.
The award is presented on a seasonal basis to the student-athlete who excels in each of the following: athletics, academics, character, sportsmanship, personal fitness and community involvement.
"Kaitlin is the heartbeat of the women’s program and has been so for a number of years now," said Brian Beil, head track coach. "Though her efforts in the 3000m were not enough to earn her a trip to the national meet, they were exceptional given her injury history and training limitations. She has had at least five broken bones since joining the program in 2012, which as you can imagine has limited her ability to train and grow quite significantly. Despite her injuries, Kaitlin has been the workhorse of the team in every practice and has still been able to produce regionally competitive times on limited training.
"During the 2017 season Kaitlin produced top-2 finishes in the 3000m on two separate occasions, coming at the Emory Crossplex Invitational and then again at the Kent Taylor Invitational hosted by UNC – Chapel Hill. Both of these efforts proved to be good enough to set the school record in the event, which she already owned from the 2016 campaign. She was able to lower her own school record almost nine seconds from 10:24.77 down to 10:15.78 with her runner-up performance at UNC, which would also place her on the Southeast Region’s “All Region” team for the event."
