Easy Riders

Ashley Kimmet ’03, Bethlehem, was a world-class cyclist before she left Bethlehem Catholic High School. Back in 2000, as a senior, Ashley won a silver medal in the world championship races in Italy.

Late in August, she competed in the U.S. cycling championships at the Lehigh Valley Velodrome in Trexlertown, where she came in third, less than three seconds behind the second-place winner. (Her prep for the race was the subject of an article in the Express-Times on August 19.) For her time in the qualifying heats, she won an Espoir National Championship, given to riders younger than 23.

After the race, she was awarded a $500 scholarship by the Nicole Reinhart Memorial Fund, established to help young track and road cyclists prepare for Olympic-level competition while in college.

Emily Shertzer ’02, who is in San Antonio, Texas, training with other hopefuls for the U.S. pentathlon team going to the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens, won a $5,000 postgraduate scholarship from the NCAA. She fulfilled requirements such as a 3.2 grade-point average (a biology major and music minor, she had a 3.69) and “performance with distinction” in her sports field.

Emily helped lead the women’s track and field team to its 10th straight Middle Atlantic Conference championship this spring and was named an all-American for her seventh-place finish in the inaugural 3,000-meter steeplechase. She also won MAC titles in the steeplechase and 10,000-meter events.

For the pentathlon, she is training in swimming, target shooting, track (that shouldn’t be too tough), horsemanship, and fencing.

Emily was the only MAC athlete selected for a scholarship in this round; Heidi Wolfsberger ’02 won earlier this year after an outstanding record during the cross-country season. They are the second and third women from the College to be honored, after Sharon Duffy Graham ’90, who won a scholarship in her senior year. Daniel Joseph ’73 and Judson Frank ’94 also won NCAA postgraduate scholarships.