AU's track and field team is stacked with many uprising talents, and its seniors will leave a great legacy. But one athlete who now makes unique contributions to the team is Christina Wright. That's because Wright, a junior from Hatboro, Pa., is the only field athlete on the team.
Wright, a thrower, joined the team as a walk-on her freshman year. She specializes in discus, but also throws shot-put.
Wright faces an interesting challenge because she doesn't have the on-campus facilities her sport demands. She makes do without them and trains at the Jacobs Fitness Center.
"It can be hard at times, but I just have to do my best with what is provided for me," she said.
AU coach Matt Centrowitz expressed his admiration for Wright's determination.
"She is on the team because she is the only one that can persevere without facilities, and she understands this," he said.
Wright had to deal with challenges of not only being a walk-on, but also being at first isolated from the team.
"It was hard my freshman and sophomore year because they didn't really know who I was and we didn't really know what my role was," she said.
However Wright quickly became an integral part of the team.
"She not only fits in very well, but is a leader on this team," Centrowitz said.
Despite the adversity, Wright's freshman year was promising. She set AU indoor and outdoor records in the shot-put.
Her sophomore year proved more challenging. She switched throwing techniques, going from gliding to spinning in the shot-put. This change set back her progress, so this season Wright and her coach made the decision to switch back to the gliding method.
"Junior year is getting back on track and now I'm where I need to be," she said. "I've put in the work, so I should be reaping the results in soon."
She is now only three feet away from breaking the school's outdoor record for discus.
Although Wright has experienced success with limited resources, she's not optimistic about the expansion of the field aspect of the team.
"[Centrowitz] wants to expand but he can't at the moment because it's hard to convince someone to come to the school when there are no facilities," she said. "I hope there will be more throwers, but I don't see it happening."
However, Wright, a public communication and statistics major who has worked for AU's athletic department, is very excited about her own future.
"I'm going to throw until my senior year, and then I have a lot of options," she said. "I want to go to my dream school, which is [North Carolina] for their sports administration program, or work for an athletic department or do an internship. I do know for a fact that I want to go with collegiate sports administration, Division I"
