Anastasia Pearse won both a gold medal as well as the 2014 Wheeler Award at the National Christian College Athletic Association championships in Rome, Georgia.
The three-day meet was held at Shorter University.
The Wheeler Award is presented for excellence in academics and athletics as well as possessing a Christian character on and off the track.
Pearse, who has a 3.75 GPA, is the director of the Crestwell Leadership Camp, which is a camp focused on mentoring young women to understand their potential and to help them develop into leaders and role models. She helps co-ordinate the team of leaders who are involved and leads in promoting and building the camp鈥檚 programs.
She also recently got her bus driver鈥檚 license so she can be a volunteer driver for Redeemer Pacific College. She helps drive students to church and coordinates trips for students to conferences, while also helping to connect the college to the community. Pearse is also on the organizing committee for an upcoming service trip to Ethiopia, which will include a number of athletes from the TWU track and field teams.
鈥淎s one of the veteran athletes on our team, Anastasia brings a calming and counselling influence,鈥� said Spartans coach Laurier Primeau.
鈥淪he is extremely caring and empathetic and I know much of that is demonstrated through her leadership qualities and her willingness to give back to the community.鈥�
On the track, Pearse won gold in the 400m hurdles, setting a new meet record in the process with a time of 1:01.20. She became the first member of the Spartans track and field program to win an individual NCCAA championship.
Pearse was one of four Spartans to find the podium at the meet.
Long jumper James Linde won silver with a leap of 6.95m and a bronze in the 400m with a time of 57.41.
Rachel Shuttleworth won bronze in the 400m with a time of 57.41 and Joel De Schiffart earned third in the 5000m with a time of 15:01.77.
Both the Spartan men鈥檚 and women鈥檚 team placed ninth.
