Nicole Robinson

Editor’s note: This is the first of six Super Six Salute award profiles.

Juggling school and athletics is something student athletes deal with throughout the school year. But senior Jen Stafslien’s former teammate, Kristi Hansen, thinks Stafslien may have found a way to do both.

“I can remember seeing her sit in the locker room before practice or meets, doing homework,” Hansen said.

Stafslien is a former UW-Eau Claire track and field athlete and nursing major and is being honored, along with five others, with a 2005 Blugold Super Six Salute award.

“I was excited. I didn’t really expect it,” Stafslien said of her being selected to receive the award.

Along with Stafslien, others receiving the award include seniors Casey Drake, John Schuna, Becca Carstensen, Matt Evensen and Katie Murphy.

The Super Six award is in its 19th year and honors student athletes who show excellence in athletics and the classroom. Each year three men and three women are chosen.

To be nominated for the award, the student athletes must have completed their junior or senior years of eligibility, have attended Eau Claire for at least two years; have a cumulative resident GPA of 3.0 or better and a declared major; be recommended by their head coach and showed above-average performance in their sport.

Stafslien competed for the Blugold women’s track and field team for the past three seasons, after transferring from UW-La Crosse. In those three seasons, Stafslien won the WIAC 55-meter hurdle indoor title twice and the 100-meter outdoor title three times. She also won the indoor long jump conference title twice. Last season, she finished runner-up at the national meet in the long jump. At the WIAC outdoor championships she was named the Co-Track Performer of the Meet.

Despite these accolades, Stafslien said, her biggest athletic accomplishment was being able to compete on two relays.

“Personally, it was the thing I worked the hardest for, being good enough to compete on the four by four relay team,” Stafslien said.

The Onalaska native will graduate in December and said the academic rigors of majoring in nursing and competing in track and field helped her manage her time.

“Having a schedule, I knew I had to be at practice from 3:30 to 5:30, so I would line up my hours,” Stafslien said. “It’s a lot of time commitment, but it was easier to time manage.”

Hansen said Stafslien’s dedication to track and her schoolwork was apparent.

“School work and track first and then everything else,” Hansen said. “She worked very hard.”

After graduating, Stafslien would like to work at the UW-Madison Hospital and eventually attend graduate school at Madison.

Her former coach and teammates said the former team captain will be missed next season.

“(Jen) has made a lasting impression, and her shoes will never be filled,” said Blugold women’s head track and field coach Tracy Yengo.

Former teammates point not only to her athletic ability, but her personality that made her a real leader.

“(Jen) is one of the most modest and humble athletes I have ever met,” former teammate junior Erin Kokta said. “I know that that is a rare quality to find in such a gifted athlete.”

Stafslien said she first began running because it gave her an opportunity to work out and have fun with her friends. Stafslien never thrived on beating other people; it was always about getting better personally, she said.

That love for running is something Stafslien said will continue even when she is no longer competing.

“I eventually want to coach,” Stafslien said. “Running will definitely be a part of my life.”