The intersection of excellence both as a student and athlete is no more apparent than with redshirt sophomore Maggie Schneider and redshirt junior Rachel Levy.
Led by Schneider and Levy, the women’s cross country team set the gold standard in athletics and academics with the highest team GPA of any sport at Oakland University with a 3.6 team GPA in fall 2018.
Schneider, who plans to attend graduate school for philosophy at a major Catholic university, is a two-time Horizon League Female Athlete of the Year, winning back-to-back titles at the
Horizon League Championships in the 6K.
“It’s perfect because whenever one thing starts stressing me out a lot, I can kind of rely on the other,” Schneider says. “Our team is like a family, but Oakland especially. When I visited other
schools, I felt like they didn’t care as much. I really like the people here.”
Levy’s performances also speak for themselves with multiple school records, being named Horizon League Freshman of the Year in 2015, Athlete of the Year in 2016, winning the league title in 2016, and finishing second in 2017 to only Schneider. An Academic All-League member in 2016, Levy also wants to attend graduate school with a focus on dietetics.
Head cross country coach, Paul Rice, knows how lucky he is to have not just Schneider and Levy, but attests to an entire team of high achievers that succeed both in and out of the classroom.
August, 4, 2019
By Derek Blalock
