[NEWS]


EAST TENNESSEE STATE UNIVERSITY FROM AN ATHLETE’S PERSPECTIVE


MADISON SHALLCROSS (53KG) How did you get involved in the program at East Tennessee State University? “Well, I had never lifted a weight in my life previously to two years


ago. Christian Carter saw me in the hallway, and I’m a short, and he said, ‘You need to be a weightlifter.’ So I tried it out two years ago in September, and I fell in love. That’s how I got into the program.” What was your first national competition? “Universities in 2011; it was in Shreveport (Louisiana). That was my


first one.” Describe the atmosphere and team. “The thing is, it is all about weightlifting, but they do care about


your grades. For you to stay on scholarship or anything like that, you have to maintain a GPA, you have to be school-oriented and everybody is really supportive. Anytime there is something wrong, you can tell them, they’ll fix it and they’ll help you. It’s a really great atmosphere.”


HOPE STOCKEL (58KG) How did you get involved in weightlifting? “I’ve been lifting weights my entire life, pretty much. The way I


heard about the program was my dad told me about it in January. He told me about Doc and Meg Stone and said I should give it a try, and I did. When I went there, I fell in love with it.” What is it like to work with the coaches of the program? “It’s great to work with them because they do know what they’re


doing and have been in the sport for a while. Doc being a sport sci- entist, he’s one of the best. Having him there and having him over- see the program, you know you’re getting the best and you know you are getting what’s best for your body recovery and lifting-wise. “Having Meg Stone there, as an Olympian, is ten times better be- cause she’s been at the level that you are striving for. She knows the


mentality and what it takes, the sacrifices you have to make. Being there, you make sacrifices. But the sacrifices you make, as big as they are, they’re paying off in the end.”


ALEXIS LICALSI (63KG) How did you get involved in the program at East Tennessee State University? “In Florida, weightlifting is a high school sport; that’s how I got


into it as a cheerleader. My first national meet was 2011 in Georgia. I placed first and I was surprised—I didn’t even realize it. I was good at the sport, stuck with it, loved it and had a really good, supporting coach, Mike DiGenero. That’s actually how I found ETSU, my coach from school with weightlifting. He found the school for me, so I went and looked at it in June after I graduated, and I loved it. I wanted something where I could lift and have an education at the same time so I didn’t have to put it on hold. It worked out perfectly.”


FROM A PARENT’S PERSPECTIVE AMANDA MURPHY — MOTHER OF MEGAN MURPHY (69KG) “My daughter, Megan Murphy, is at 69kg lifter, and this is her first


year in college. I went and took a look at the college and was very impressed. I really liked the coaches and felt like she would be really well taken care of. The amount of support there, academically as well as with athletics, it’s a perfect combination. I was very relieved as a mother who was living states and states away to send her there. She has developed amazingly; she is a very well-rounded adult, and she has changed drastically, in my view, with her lifting. She’s making large strides with her training, her mental training, her academics as well as athletics.” For more information on the program please contact Meg Stone at http://www.sportscienceed.com/p/weightlifting.html.


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