The Barometer Online

Issue date: 2/29/08 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Curtis Barnard Keegan Fitzgerald, a Beaverton native, has racked up plenty of All-Academic honors during her time at Oregon State. Fitzgerald is a two-time CoSIDA/ESPN All-District 8 Women's At-Large first team honoree.

A hard worker in the classroom and the gym, her teammates are surprised to hear senior bars specialist, Keegan Fitzgerald, laugh loudly at a joke.

"She is very quiet all the time," teammate Jami Lanz said. "It's actually funny. She is so serious and so quiet that when we all bust out laughing it's really funny to hear her laugh. It makes us laugh even more when we see that she is just cracking up, rolling on the floor."

Since arriving at Oregon State in 2003, Fitzgerald has worked to balance her love of gymnastics with her love of learning. She has yet to earn a grade lower than an A- in her five years at OSU. Quiet and reserved, Fitzgerald has displayed a depth of talents that range beyond her skills on the uneven bars. In fact, they blossom in the classroom.

It is tricky enough to balance on a four inch wide beam, but balancing a senior thesis, difficult science classes and the pressures of being a collegiate athlete is something that Fitzgerald faces on a daily basis.

Despite many academic awards, Fitzgerald, a biology major with an option in pre-med and member of OSU's Honors College, is not quick to boast about her achievements.

"I just like school," Fitzgerald said. "I just like learning new things and I get excited about new ideas because they are cool to me. School isn't necessarily easy for me, I have to work really hard at it, but I kind of enjoy working hard at it because I get a lot out of it."

The Beaverton native, who trained at the Multnomah Athletic Club and attended Westview High School, developed a love of learning early in her academic career.

"I really liked science in high school," Fitzgerald said. "It was one of those subjects that came easily for me to understand conceptually."

In 2006 and 2007, Fitzgerald was a Pac-10 All-Academic First Team. She was also a NACGC/W Scholastic All-American in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007 and was awarded OSU's Howard Hughes Medical Institute Grant.

Continued...

Page 1 of 2 next >

Article Tools