Mabel Fowler, a first-year involved in three varsity sports at Trinity, is determined to make her mark on this campus.
The ambitious athlete came to Trinity planning to run cross-country in the fall and track and field in the spring, while swimming competitively for Trinity’s swim team in the winter. Since winter sports overlap a great deal with fall and spring sports, Fowler will always be involved in multiple sports at once throughout the year.
Fowler has enjoyed competing on sports teams throughout her life, so the transition to college seemed natural.
“I’ve always swam. I’ve done swimming since I was three. No kidding, I’ve done it all my life. I started running in seventh grade. I also played golf throughout my four years of high school, so I did a lot of sports and always was busy,” Fowler said. “When I searched for colleges, it was hard. I was thinking “˜I want to swim, but it’s sad to let go of running.’ But then I found Trinity, and they said I could do both, so it was perfect.”
Each day, Fowler gets up for cross-country at 6 a.m., practices for an hour and a half, goes about her day of classes and homework, and then has afternoon swim practice from 4:30″“6:30 p.m. She is thankful for how the cross-country and swim coaches collaborate together.
“The coaches work really well together. They talk and figure it out. So my hard days for running are my hard days for swimming, so those days are like really, really hard. But my easy days for running are my easy days for swimming. So I only have to swim an hour on those days. I’m still training a lot with both,” Fowler said.
The swimming runner is also planning on double majoring in business and human communication. Fowler feels confident in how things are going now and thinks she can keep up the multitude of majors and sports.
Fowler’s teammates on both sports teams admire her perseverance.
“She’s obviously extremely talented, but she’s also very hardworking. I can’t imagine how exhausted she must feel from the demanding practice schedules of both sports. However, despite how tiring her workouts seem, she always seems to be positive, uplifting and have a smile on her face,” said Caroline North, a first-year on the swim team.
North said that her teammate’s competitive spirit encourages her to improve.
“We swim similar events, and she’s really fast. Swimming next to her in practice challenges me and it pushes me to become a better swimmer,” North said.
Fowler’s teammates on cross-country say the same.
“Mabel is really supportive and she wants everyone to succeed. She’s never selfish,” said Olive Pertuit, first-year runner and Fowler’s roommate. “I think it’s really easy to be selfish in running, because your teammate’s demise could mean your advancement. But Mabel would never think like that; instead, she just wants everyone to improve and do the best they can.”
Fowler’s first semester hasn’t been entirely smooth, however. She’s faced a few recurring issues with her hamstrings, but said she’s just been pushing through it and is still able to run and swim.
Fowler credits her quick recovery to the help of Blair Wyatt, one of the athletic trainers, and to the low impact of swimming.
“Running is very taxing on the body, so it happens that you get injured. I think it may be just the tiredness. Swimming does help a lot with running, I think, because it loosens you up. It’s not impactful at all. During those times when I was injured, I would only pull at practice “” so no kicking, just arms “” which made my arms really tired,” Fowler said.
Pertuit has watched how Fowler’s commitment to athletics affects her lifestyle.
I know it can be hard for Mabel to be in multiple sports. It definitely takes a toll on her body and she needs a lot of sleep to recover from it. But she also always manages to get her work done and she’s never up past 11 p.m. and I think that’s just a testament to her devotion to her sports,” Pertuit said.
Fowler believes she can keep up the multiple sports, because she has an end goal in mind: triathlons.
“I really love triathlons and I’ve done them my whole life. But they don’t really have them in collegiate sports right now. It’s not like a big thing. My goal is to train for that after college, so I’m going to keep doing both right now to stay in shape,” Fowler said.
Catch Fowler racing at the SCAC meet for cross-country on Saturday, Oct. 28 and swimming the weekend after that on Nov. 4.
