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Amy Menlove: track champion, RM, newlywed
By Sharon Haddock
Mormon Times
Monday, Mar. 30, 2009
Returned LDS missionary, track star and pentathlon champion, Amy Menlove isn't letting any grass grow beneath her feet.
The day after picking up accolades from Brigham Young University for her participation in the university's recent, big track win, she was married in the new Draper Utah Temple.
A BYU junior from Sandy, Utah, the Alta High School graduate already had a history of big wins behind her before she won the NCAA Championship for BYU at the Indoor Track and Field Championships in College Station, Texas, on March 13.
BYU head track and field coach Craig Poole talks with Amy Menlove after the recognition presentation for Menlove and the other track team members that helped bring home a third place finish at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships. Menlove won the pentathlon event. (Stuart Johnson, Deseret News)
She became BYU's first individual NCAA champion since Tiffany Lott in 1997.
Menlove scored 4,365 points in the five-event competition, passing up second-place Gayle Hunter of Penn State with 4,342 points.
"I thought if I did well I would win it," said Menlove, who came into the event ranked in ninth place.
Menlove took first place in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.26. In the high jump, she hit 5'6 1/2 inches and 38' 1" in the shot put which put her into the fourth place slot.
When she jumped 21 feet in the long jump, she catapulted to first place again and secured her win with a 800-meter run in 2:18.65.
An hour later, she earned another All-America citation with another 21-foot jump.
That was a long day of five events," she said. "It was really very exciting. The year before I had gotten second so I really wanted to do well this year and my whole family was there (and my fiance) so it made it nice."
The team as a whole took 3rd place overall with Menlove, Lacey Cramer, Katie Palmer, Natalie Stewart and Jessica Young sharing the effort and the triumph.
"I was almost most excited to get 3rd as a team," said Menlove at the awards event Tuesday, March 24 in Provo, Utah.
In high school, Menlove was state champion in the 100-meter dash and long jump for three years. She lettered in track all four high school years.
"Since coming to BYU in 2004, she's consistently placed and won numerous hurdle, meter and long jump compeitions. She was named Academic All-MWC in her freshman and sophomore years.
She's also served an 18-month mission to Cleveland, Ohio, between her sophomore and junior year. She wed Dave Otis on Wednesday, March 25.
Menlove said Otis is supportive of her athletic career and even runs with her now and then.
She plans to focus on her new husband and marriage for a couple of weeks and then she'll be back on the track.
"Usually after about three days, I'm anxious to get back to it," she said.
She attributes her athletic success directly to God.
"Honestly, I give all of the credit to God. He gave me the talent and he helps me succeed," said Menlove. "If it wasn't for prayer in the pentathlon, I would not be alive right now."
She said she's also been blessed with "amazing coaches and team mates and good health."
Through the years, she's dealt with a couple of relatively minor physical challenges such as stress fractures but she figures that's just part of the deal.
"You just push through it and it makes you stronger," she said.
E-MAIL: haddoc@desnews.com
The day after picking up accolades from Brigham Young University for her participation in the university's recent, big track win, she was married in the new Draper Utah Temple.
A BYU junior from Sandy, Utah, the Alta High School graduate already had a history of big wins behind her before she won the NCAA Championship for BYU at the Indoor Track and Field Championships in College Station, Texas, on March 13.
BYU head track and field coach Craig Poole talks with Amy Menlove after the recognition presentation for Menlove and the other track team members that helped bring home a third place finish at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships. Menlove won the pentathlon event. (Stuart Johnson, Deseret News)
Menlove scored 4,365 points in the five-event competition, passing up second-place Gayle Hunter of Penn State with 4,342 points.
"I thought if I did well I would win it," said Menlove, who came into the event ranked in ninth place.
Menlove took first place in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.26. In the high jump, she hit 5'6 1/2 inches and 38' 1" in the shot put which put her into the fourth place slot.
When she jumped 21 feet in the long jump, she catapulted to first place again and secured her win with a 800-meter run in 2:18.65.
An hour later, she earned another All-America citation with another 21-foot jump.
That was a long day of five events," she said. "It was really very exciting. The year before I had gotten second so I really wanted to do well this year and my whole family was there (and my fiance) so it made it nice."
The team as a whole took 3rd place overall with Menlove, Lacey Cramer, Katie Palmer, Natalie Stewart and Jessica Young sharing the effort and the triumph.
"I was almost most excited to get 3rd as a team," said Menlove at the awards event Tuesday, March 24 in Provo, Utah.
In high school, Menlove was state champion in the 100-meter dash and long jump for three years. She lettered in track all four high school years.
"Since coming to BYU in 2004, she's consistently placed and won numerous hurdle, meter and long jump compeitions. She was named Academic All-MWC in her freshman and sophomore years.
She's also served an 18-month mission to Cleveland, Ohio, between her sophomore and junior year. She wed Dave Otis on Wednesday, March 25.
Menlove said Otis is supportive of her athletic career and even runs with her now and then.
She plans to focus on her new husband and marriage for a couple of weeks and then she'll be back on the track.
"Usually after about three days, I'm anxious to get back to it," she said.
She attributes her athletic success directly to God.
"Honestly, I give all of the credit to God. He gave me the talent and he helps me succeed," said Menlove. "If it wasn't for prayer in the pentathlon, I would not be alive right now."
She said she's also been blessed with "amazing coaches and team mates and good health."
Through the years, she's dealt with a couple of relatively minor physical challenges such as stress fractures but she figures that's just part of the deal.
"You just push through it and it makes you stronger," she said.
E-MAIL: haddoc@desnews.com
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