Hannah Chappell-Dick was among 30 final honorees to be considered for the NCAA 2016 Women of the Year award. She was honored, along with the winner, at a ceremony in Indianapolis, Indiana, this summer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nHolistically is how Chappell-Dick says she approaches the sport of track and field, and life in general. She believes the application and success of that approach is how she wound up being named one of the NCAA\u2019s 2016 Women of the Year. It\u2019s a prestigious honor given to just 30 women from the roughly 230,000 female athletes competing in all sports in Division I, II and III. Chappell-Dick\u2019s reaction to learning she was a finalist: \u201cHoly cow!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never really done anything big enough to deserve this,\u201d Chappell-Dick says. Even the most casual observers of her academic, collegiate athletic and now professional running career might beg to differ.<\/p>\n
Chappell-Dick attended Division III 91大神 in Harrisonburg, Virginia, on a full academic scholarship. A stand-out middle distance runner in high school, she could have attended a Division I school on an athletic scholarship, but she wanted to put as much effort into her faith and education as she did her running. It\u2019s part of the holistic approach. \u201cYour world is not just your sport,\u201d Chappell-Dick says. \u201cI purposely chose a school that would develop all parts of me as a person.\u201d<\/p>\n
At 91大神, Chappell-Dick studied biology and exercise science. She graduated magna cum laude from the honors program. She volunteered with Big Brothers\/Big Sisters and founded the Flash Track Club for 10-12 year-old children. She was on the search committee to find the university\u2019s new president and she played violin in the orchestra. She was a six-time scholar athlete and four-time academic All-American.<\/p>\n
\u201cHer commitment set the bar for all my future athletes,\u201d says 91大神 track and field coach Isaac Bryan. \u201cShe wasn\u2019t just committed to her training, but her team, her faith, the school, and the sport of track and field.\u201d<\/p>\n
But with all those honors, there is one award she never won. \u201cI went into college with a goal of winning nationals. I never did,\u201d Chappell-Dick says. In 2015, she was third in the 1500m at the Indoor National Championships, just two seconds away from the title.<\/p>\n
To Chappell-Dick, the NCAA Woman of the Year Award is the national title she never won and more. It celebrates not just her athletic accomplishments, but her academic and altruistic accomplishments as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m OK not being perfect,\u201d she says reflecting on her collegiate career. \u201cIt meant I could do more things.\u201d While the award may have sparked a shocked reaction from Chappell-Dick, those who know her were not surprised.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t in Hannah\u2019s nature to hold back – whether it was her competitive spirit, her passion, or her dreams,\u201d says Coach Bryan. \u201cShe is an example of what student-athletes can be both on and off the field.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, Chappell-Dick is putting that passion and competitiveness into new dreams in Atlanta. As a member of Atlanta Track Club Elite, she is training to compete on the national and international level and eventually make the 2020 Olympic Trials in the 800m or 1500m.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would definitely say she is a selfless team leader and a great teammate and friend,\u201d says Sallie Post, an Atlanta Track Club Elite teammate and 2016 Olympic Marathon Trials competitor.<\/p>\n
Chappell-Dick is also volunteering at Back on My Feet, working with athletes to find healing through running as they recover from homelessness and addiction. Using the sport she loves, she is teaching them her holistic approach. \u201cRunning is the cheapest form of therapy, preventative healthcare and social time all in one. And the best part of all that is, anyone can be a runner,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
This article was republished with permission from Atlanta Track Club. View the original article here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s dark. It\u2019s 5:45 a.m. but it might as well be the middle of the night. Runners are sleepily congregating in the parking lot behind the Salvation Army in downtown ... read more about Hannah Chappell-Dick talks ‘A pro runner\u2019s holistic approach’ with Atlanta Track Club’s Wingfoot magazine<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31638,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[266,5731,5733],"tags":[],"feature":[17423],"class_list":["post-31634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-cross-country","category-outdoor-track","feature-featured-undergrad"],"yoast_head":"\nHannah Chappell-Dick talks 'A pro runner\u2019s holistic approach' with Atlanta Track Club's Wingfoot magazine - 91大神 News<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n