The first time Hillsdale College reached out to now senior track and cross country runner Meg Scheske, she said no.

Reflecting on her four years as an athlete and a student, Scheske said she came to Hillsdale because of athletics but found everything she wanted in a college.

“I’ve gotten so much from Hillsdale and running has only been one factor of a lot of blessings,” Scheske said. “I’m just immensely grateful if for no other reason that running brought me here.” 

After competing in track and cross country since the age of 10, Scheske will leave the sport with an impressive record in both disciplines. In cross country, she qualified three times for the Division II National Meet and made second team All-G-MAC in 2020 and 2021. In track, Scheske qualified twice for the DII National Meet in the outdoor 3000m steeplechase and placed six times in the G-MAC for the indoor mile, 5000m run, and steeplechase. 

An accomplished high school athlete from Sturgis, Michigan, Scheske was recruited by several DI schools before deciding on Hillsdale.

After visiting DI schools and meeting with coaches and teammates, Scheske felt disillusioned with college athletics.

“When I talked to coaches, I felt very much not like a person,” Sheske said. “I felt like someone to be used for my running abilities and used until I broke.”

Scheske said she got the impression that the other athletes were only there to get a “ticket for a job,” something she was not interested in. 

“I really liked reading theology,” Scheske said. “So I came to the conclusion that ‘I don’t get to read stuff that’s worthwhile in school, so I’m just going to not go to college and work at a flower shop and read theology and philosophy.’”

Just as she was thinking that she would not go to college at all, Hillsdale reached out a second time. Scheske said something clicked when she talked to Coach R.P. White the first time.

“The first thing he said was ‘we see you as a whole person, so your moral, your spiritual, and your academic life are all going to play a role in your physical abilities to compete as an athlete,’” Scheske said. “And that was the first and only time I heard a coach say anything along those lines.”

Scheske said that the transition from high school to Hillsdale was a shock for her as running and academics intensified and she battled health difficulties her sophomore year. 

“I was physically exhausted 24/7 because I was running mileage I had never run in my life repeatedly on end,” Scheske said. “And I felt very broken down on all cylinders because I was just so unprepared for the intensity I encountered here.” 

Nevertheless, Scheske said she was able to pull through and find the balance in running and academics thanks to her faith life and the support of her coaches and teammates.

She set personal records in cross country at nationals her freshman year and competed in track nationals for steeplechase her sophomore and junior years.

This past season, Scheske represented Hillsdale as an individual at cross country nationals.

“It felt like this culminating moment of ‘yes, I’ve figured out this sport after all these years,’” Scheske said about her experience in the race. “I reached a state of knowing who I am in racing and in the sport.”

White said that Scheske’s senior season especially revealed her growth as an athlete.

“She’s really disciplined and diligent,” White said. “She’s come a long way with self-confidence and during this past indoor season, she almost seemed authoritative when she was out racing. So it’s just really cool to see her go through that whole process throughout her time here as a long distance runner.”

Junior Liz Wamsley, who competed at cross country nationals with Scheske this season, said that Scheske is an integral part of the team.

“Meg is a very vibrant personality,” Wamsley said. “She brings a lot of energy to the team and a lot of openness and communication to the team and a lot of compassion as well. Those are big shoes to fill.”

While Scheske said she is proud of her accomplishments as an athlete, she is most grateful for the unity she has found at Hillsdale between running and life.

“I’ve really learned how to love running as a way of loving the rest of my life,” Scheske said. “The Lord has spoken to me so beautifully through the act of distance running, and I’ll take that with me for the rest of my life. I don’t meet many people who see their relationship to their bodies and what they can do through a sport so inextricably entwined with their personal and spiritual life. If I get nothing else out of this, that is enough to sustain me for the rest of my life.”

Scheske said that running has taught her patience and perseverance which she can apply to the rest of her life. 

“When you’re running, you have to continually just make yourself keep going,” Scheske said. “You have to teach yourself how to keep going when things get hard. And that was being paralleled in my whole life a lot. School was harder than it was for any of my siblings, my relationship with my body was harder than it would be if I could stop competing. But because I was learning through actually running in races, long runs, and practices where I felt like I was on the brink of collapse, it taught me how to deal with the life things.”

Even with a full schedule of running and classes, Scheske didn’t limit herself to these two worlds at Hillsdale. She invested in campus life and helped with the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults at St. Anthony’s parish, served as secretary of the Phi Sigma Tau philosophy honorary, and played the flute in jazz band. 

She met her fiance, Leo Schlueter ’22, through a student jazz band. 

The couple will marry this summer in August before Schekse begins a degree in divinity and Schlueter begins his second year of law school, both at the University of Notre Dame. 

“If I’ve learned nothing else here, I’ve learned how to handle a lot of stuff,” Scheske said. “When I think about the prospect of being newly married and starting a degree that requires academic, spiritual, and emotional work, I think I would have run away screaming four years ago. But after Hillsdale, I’ll be fine. I’ve learned to really manage life on different playing fields at the same time.”

While Scheske sees her experience at Hillsdale as more than athletics, she is grateful for the fundamental role that being an athlete played in her personal growth.

“I don’t think anything would have formed me so deeply as being an athlete through it all,” Scheske said. “If I had just Hillsdale College without the athletics, I would have come out of here a fundamentally different person and I would have taken so much less from the experience. I’m very grateful that running brought me here but also that it has continued to sustain all of my life.”