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MSU's two-time national champion takes it higher
by Bill Lamberty |
Page 1 of 2 |
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Since taking up pole vaulting on a whim in high school, Ellie Rudy has felt at home with a pole in her hands. Last summer, she learned she's just as comfortable working with test tubes and Bunsen burners.
"I loved it, actually," Rudy said of her experience working in Mark Young's laboratory on the Montana State University campus.
"The time (in the lab) went by so fast. Every day it was like, 'Oh, it's over already?'"
Working in Young's lab in Plant Sciences and Plant Pathology, the junior from Woodland, Colo., performed experiments in an environmental study on a type of protein that thrives in Yellowstone National Park's steaming underground for post-doctoral researcher Alice Ortman. Rudy's energy impressed Ortman.
"She was really enthused and learned really fast," Ortman said.
"I was always amazed with how she managed to get everything done because of how busy a woman she is. She strikes me as the kind of person who will succeed at whatever she does."
Rudy, who has a 3.4 GPA, came to work in Young's laboratory strictly by chance, after a lunch with MSU President Geoff Gamble. "I told him I was interested in doing cancer research, and he told me about Mark Young's work, and I thought it sounded great," she said.
"That's where it all started, I guess. (Gamble) got me hooked up with (Young), and it took off from there."
The summer's lab work came as a welcome respite from her primary avocation, which left her physically spent and mentally drained as the 2007 season ended.
The great thing about Ellie is that her focus and work ethic match her ability.
--Dale Kennedy |
"I was struggling with how long the season went, because I was competing since January and traveling almost every weekend," Rudy said. "I was so sick of (the travel), when it was over I just wanted to stay home for a while. Mentally, I just checked out."
That fatigue mirrored Rudy's finest moment of 2007, the winning vault at the NCAA Indoor Championships that launched her into Bobcat immortality as the school's first-ever female national champion. She won her title in dramatic fashion, winning a vault-off after finishing the competition tied with another jumper.
"I was not as excited as I would have been if it would have been one jump and it's over, I won," she said. Rudy won her second national championship outright with a vault of 14 feet, 1 1/4 inches.
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