Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) first-year Hannah Nichols did not find running; running found her. One day the athletic director at Chancellor High School in Fredericksburg pulled her out of chemistry class.
“He was like, ‘Why are you playing softball?’” Nichols recounted, laughing at the memory. He suggested she go out for track. That was her junior year of high school, and she has been running ever since.
Nichols has already made her mark on the EMU track and field program. She finished her indoor track season with a trip to the national meet, earning a sixth place All-American finish in the 800m.
“It was just absolutely exhilarating,” Nichols said, “because I just didn’t think it was going to happen at all.” She went into the qualifying race knowing she would have to drop four seconds to have a chance of making it to nationals; in the 800, which is essentially an all-out sprint, four seconds is a lot.
“I just went for it,” Nichols said, going on to describe the incredible excitement and disbelief she and her coach shared after she crossed the line. And she’s not stopping now; she has new goals for outdoor track. She hopes to run the 800 in 2:10, which would beat her current personal record by three seconds and smash the school record.
Nichols has impressed her head track coach, Isaac Bryan. He had high expectations and knew that she could develop a lot throughout the year. Even so, she has surpassed these expectations. “For her to be All-American as a freshman is super, super rare,” Bryan said. “I keep trying not to put limits on her because she keeps surprising me.”
Being an All-American collegiate athlete isn’t all fun and games, though. When asked her least favorite part of running, Nichols chuckled ruefully.
“Oh gosh, just one?” she said. “The sleep loss, probably … I could complain about a lot, but I still wouldn’t give it up.” Her favorite events include the mile and the 800. “I hate the 400,” she said. “Make sure you put that in there. Just thinking about it gives me anxiety.”
Nichols ran the 400m at last weekend’s meet at Lynchburg, winning handily by over half a second and earning the third best time in EMU history.
Currently a double major in accounting and business administration, she is exploring other options. This semester she is in “Exploring Teaching” and Spanish. “Maybe I’ll just drop out of college,” she mused, “ and join the Peace Corps.”
In her free time, when she’s not munching on raw sweet potatoes or cutting hair — her friends’ and her own — Nichols loves to scroll through Pinterest. She finds herself lost in the household appliance pages. “Toasters, and screwdrivers, and keyboards … it’s all so interesting. They have holograms for everything.”
She also enjoys spending time with friends and watching Avatar. “Yip yip,” she said. “The people who watch Avatar will get it.” Her perfect Saturday includes sleeping in late, jamming out to ’60s rock, and eating an English muffin. “Without butter,” she specified, “and with grape jelly, and pomegranate juice on the side.”
“[Hannah] embraces and even longs for any type of change in her life,” said first-year Abigail Shelly, also a member of the track team. “I feel like this is the greatest contributor to her resiliency. She is ready for anything that may come her way, and instead of ‘facing it,’ she kind of dances with it, appreciating the nuances it brings.”
In this same vein, Nichols also loves to rearrange her room, something she does at least once a week. “Things are moving,” she said. “I love change. Can’t get enough of it.”
And things certainly are moving for this first-year All-American track star.
This article was first published in the March 30, 2017, edition of the Weather Vane.