Where Are They Now: Gretchen Anderson

Gretchen Anderson graduated from in 2008 where she played on the field hockey team and was a star on the track and field team (both indoor and outdoor). While at Grafton she set marks of five feet in the high jump and 31’6” in the triple jump and was also awarded the schools’ Hassanamisco Commemorative Award at graduation.

Though she was being recruited for both field hockey and track and field, Anderson decided to pursue her running career and education at the University of Richmond. As a freshman for the outdoor track team, Anderson recorded season bests in the 55m hurdles (9.52), the 60m hurdles (10.43), 800m sprints (2:51.73), the high jump (1.48m), the long jump (4.40m) and pentathlon (2,428 points). She did well during her freshman outdoor track season, as well as the following indoor season as a sophomore,  competing in the multis before injuring her ankle.

Anderson, a junior, splits her time between working her way back to competing and studying towards a degree in biology. Ever since a young age Anderson loved animals, specifically reptiles, and is planning on getting her PhD in some form of ecology after college. She aspires to do conservation work in Africa or in the Amazon and become a college professor later on in life.

Favorite food: Ice cream: vanilla, cotton candy or chocolate chip cookie dough

Favorite movie(s): Star Wars or Lord of the Rings

Favorite type of music: Anything with a good beat that I can either listen to while running or dancing.

What’s on your iPod? Maroon 5

What have you been up to since graduating from Grafton High School in 2008?

Basically just trying to survive college between trying to manage my time between Division I track at the University of Richmond and my biology major.

I have one to two practices a day the entire week, usually in the morning and the afternoon. Then I have classes in between those practices and then I have to go back and do homework, but there’s not much that I’m doing besides track and school right now.

How has track been going for you so far over the last few seasons?

It’s actually been kind of rough, I got injured last year when I was hurdling and I ended up breaking my ankle and tearing ligaments in it. I went through physical therapy and all that good stuff. Right now, I started running again and I’m focusing on getting back in shape. I should be able to compete this season.

Freshman year, when I wasn’t injured, I placed pretty well. I kind of finished in the middle of my league, it wasn’t the best, it wasn’t the worst, but it was a pretty good place to be for a freshman.

How did you injure your ankle?

It was at practice. I was just hurdling and I landed wrong on it and I ended up spraining, breaking, tearing and bruising my ankle. So it took me about  a year to recover from that injury, but now I’m back, no problems and I’m slowly getting back in shape and looking forward toward this season, so no complaints.

What made you choose the University of Richmond in the first place and where else were you looking?

There were a couple other colleges that I was looking at, a few out in Colorado, like Colorado State University, then a small school called Sweet Briar College that was trying to recruit me for field hockey because I played field hockey as well.

I chose Richmond because it was a really small school, there’s only about 3,000 undergrads here, so all my classes are capped at about 20 students, so I have really good relationships with my professors and I have a lot of opportunities that students at larger schools wouldn’t get to have. I was able to use very expensive equipment my freshmen year. A lot of my friends as freshmen did research in labs, which is usually something graduate students do or seniors. There are just a lot of opportunities available at Richmond, some of which are not available to me at UMass Amherst and schools like that.

Can you talk about your Grafton High School experience and if there are any favorite moments that you recall?

There’s no one memorable moment. I loved high school a lot, especially because of sports. My field hockey team was amazing. My junior year in high school we won the field hockey league title for the first time in 20 years, so that was an absolute blast and our track team took off when I was a junior/senior and we won SWCL indoor or came close to winning outdoor.

Now that I think of it, as sad as it is, my most memorable moment is when our field hockey team lost in Districts senior year. We were the last-seeded seed in Districts and we ended up beating the sixth seed and then went on to face the third-seeded team. We went into triple overtime and had something called a stroke off and we ended up losing. We had so many great wins and just being on the field with the team was just always the best and as much as the field hockey team and track team made us run a lot, it was just fun being out on the field with everyone.

What turned you on to running and what keeps you motivated to continue to do it?

It’s kind of weird; it’s like a love-hate relationship. I always say that I hate running—I’m actually kind of a lazy person—so it’s kind of a good thing that I’m because I’ll get up in the morning and I’ll go to practices.

Just the fact that I have a team out there with me is a big motivation…and the way I feel after I run is like the runner’s high, you just feel really good after you run…it’s a good time to destress and think about what needs to get done.

What kind of hobbies do you have or what do you do in your down time?

I really like to read. I do a lot of reading on the side besides school books. I tend to read every night. I do like to go out with friends a lot, we go downtown. There are lots of restaurants, some music venues downtown when we don’t have a meet that we have on the weekend. Also, I like to draw, go to see movies all the time and hang out with friends and destress from all my work.