Carly Rothert is Track and Field athlete from Elmore, Ohio, majoring in biology, and getting her minor in psychology for health sciences. At their most recent conference meet, Carly had the highest point score out of all the women’s runners.
What inspired you to start running track?
Initially, it started as just something to stay in shape for soccer; that was the first sport I was playing. I got a really bad concussion and wasn’t able to play soccer anymore. I just fell in love with track because that was what I had left. I started getting more specialized in events, and started to actually like the events; it wasn’t just running anymore. Now, I do high jump, hurdles, triple jump, and sometimes open events.
Before track, did you play any other sport(s) that have carried over to running?
Like I mentioned, I played soccer to get in shape for track; in addition, I did ballet, tap dancing, tumbling, basketball; I pretty much did everything. I always loved track at the end of the day though.
How do you balance studying, training, and having relaxation time?
We’re not in season right now, so we don’t have to worry about the competition aspect. I have a planner I use and basically live out of it; everything is planned to a tee in my day. We have practice in the morning, so after that I make sure I have time to get breakfast, and go to classes. At the end of the day, I make sure I study a bit and go to bed early. Fridays, I do nothing school related; Friday is my recovery day.
What is your favorite part of the sport?
The team aspect. It’s an individual sport that isn’t individual, if that makes sense. Everybody trains together, everybody practices together; during the competition you’re the only one obviously, but you still have your teammates backing you.
Do you have any pre-meet rituals?
I really don’t, I have always been against pre-meet rituals. I’m superstitiously against superstitions. I feel like it’s going to cause me more problems if I have pre-meet rituals. If you don’t do well, then you mentally mess up, which affects me negatively because all my events are very mental.
What are some of your goals here in your career at NSU?
Academically, I want to keep above a 3.8 GPA and get accepted into medical school. Athletically, I want to get through my career without any injuries and I want to at least provisionally qualify for nationals in something. That doesn’t necessarily mean go to nationals which is the ultimate goal, but provisionally qualifying for something would be awesome.
For some athletes, traveling to off-campus meets is tiring; do you like traveling to other schools to compete?
I absolutely love it. That’s one of my favorite things because it gets me more in the zone; I get in the mindset of ‘this is real.’ It feels more professional. It’s not like we’re just going to the practice field. It makes me feel more ready for competition; I just sleep the whole way there and I get to experience different schools in different parts of Florida.
What are your hobbies or passions when you’re not training or competing?
I like to read and enjoy yoga. I took up yoga during my concussion because it was the only thing I could do and it’s actually carried over to sports. It calms me down and resets me for the day. I try to get members of the team to come with me and I’ll get a few people.
Photo: NSU Athletics
Written: Cameron Pritchett
