When Lindsey Pritchard walked the stage on May 4th, she graduated as the most decorated student-athlete ever (male or female) from Methodist University. She is the USA South Athletic Conference's 2019 Rita Wiggs Woman of the Year and a nominee for the NCAA Woman of the Year. This spring, Pritchard snagged Methodist University's Female Senior Athlete of the Year, as well as the school's 2019 Lucius Stacy Weaver Award, given to the student who shows service, academic, and spiritual excellence. 

Pritchard is a four-time Academic All-Conference selection and the first student-athlete to win the female Methodist Scholar-Athlete of the Year award four times. She is also a pretty outstanding athlete -- a two-time first team All-USA South Athletic Conference selection and a conference champion with several Methodist records to her name.

Imagine if Pritchard's outstanding time at Methodist never happened. A lot had to take place first, like her gut instinct that attending school more than 700 miles away in North Carolina was the right step after graduating from Strongsville High School in Ohio. Pritchard had no family in Fayetteville, had never visited Fayetteville, nor does her family have a military background.

"I'm pretty based on gut feelings, I was just like 'I want to go to North Carolina,' she recalled. "And I like [Division III] schools and Methodist had everything that I wanted. It had ROTC on campus, had track, and had my major."

It is also surprising that she chose the military as her career field. Pritchard joined the ROTC program after not even doing the Junior ROTC program in high school. She went on a "gut feeling" that the military might just be for her. 

"My mom has pharmaceutical sales accounts at [Veteran Affairs] and she always told me that I would do really well in any sort of military capacity and I decided to look into it because I didn't really know what I wanted to do [as a career]," Pritchard said.

Clearly, her mom was right since Pritchard received the Pallas Athene Award from the Women's Army Corps Veteran Association, awarded annually to the top two outstanding female senior Army ROTC Cadets in the country. The summa cum laude graduate ranks among the top 10 percent of cadets in the nation and she was awarded with the Methodist University President's ROTC Award, as well, on April 10. The double major in environmental science and Spanish takes just as much pride in her academics as she does in her athletics. The fluent Spanish speaker, writer, and reader has studied abroad in both Argentina and Spain.

She also brought attention to the school's lack of recycling at the time with a campaign featuring "big cardboard boxes" in Garber Hall. Additionally, she is a member of the Phi Alpha Phi and Omicron Delta Kappa honor societies. Before graduation, Pritchard has already commissioned and branched army engineer. She plans to eventually attend the SAPPER Leader Course and possibly transition over to the environmental science office of the Army Corps of Engineers.

In 2017, Pritchard became the school's first women's cross country runner to claim an individual championship when she won the USA South Athletic Conference six-kilometer crown with a program-record time of 22:49.58. Prior to that season, she had never run cross country and she may not have considered running long-distance if not for an injury that forced her to transition away from sprints in track & field. She tore the ACL in her left knee December of her freshman year of college playing intramural volleyball and "luckily, we were playing the [physical trainers] program," she laughed.

After a grueling rehab and being unable to run for four months, she returned for the outdoor track & field season, and it was during that time that assistant track and head cross country coach Jack Brunecz spotted a potential star:

"It really was that first longer type of run that we went on together that I realized that she had a lot of mental toughness, her endurance base was definitely above-average and I felt like she had the possibility of being successful in cross country. Once we got to those meets where we wanted to peak as runners, she just elevated to a whole new level. She's definitely one of those runners where she's a gamer… when we get to those bigger situations, she rises to the occasion."

Pritchard thought her performance at the championship was a possible fluke until she registered an even better time in the next meet when she posted a new record time of 22:48.70 at the NCAA Regionals, where she placed 34th and earned All-Region honors.

"I didn't realize that me PR-ing is me breaking the record again! I didn't really connect that either. It just made me realize that it wasn't just a fluke or me just getting some luck… After Regionals, I realized I definitely have some talent here, which was pretty reassuring."

Pritchard also gives a big shoutout to teammate Makayla Lawler because "if [Lawler] wasn't on the team, I don't think I would have gotten [the championship], because she pushed me a lot in training and made me better than I would have been if she wasn't there."

Pritchard hasn't fully taken the time to soak all of this in but nonetheless, she hasn't taken anything for granted. 

"I would really hope that I get into the [Methodist University's] Hall of Fame, that would be awesome," Pritchard admitted when asked if she expects a plaque. "That would make me believe that I left a legacy, that people can look back and talk about Lindsey Pritchard. She came and she put all of this work in, and the success stems from that. Athletes coming in can look at that."

Five years after graduation, Pritchard will be eligible for the Methodist Athletic Hall of Fame, which means it is only a matter of time before Pritchard adds another plaque to her collection. However, regardless of a hall of fame, Pritchard's legacy is already cemented and here to stay for generations to come. Pritchard just wanted to be the example that if she can do it, so can everyone else, and she has done just that. If you don't take my word for it, take Brunecz's word for it:

"It has truly been a pure blessing having Lindsey Pritchard be a part of the program, her work ethic, her attitude, her mental toughness, her physical toughness, every aspect that a cross country or track coach could want in a runner, she far exceeds the expectation. Even when she accomplishes something, she's still striving for more, she's the epitome of what any coach would be looking for in an ideal athlete and she also gets it done in the classroom too."