Six Years, a Few Tears, and Hopefully Some Cheers in Macey White’s Final College Season of Running

Tears of pain, frustration, and saying good-bye to many great people have filled Macey White’s eyes these last six years. It’s hard to blame her; continued stress fractures, being told she should medically retire, and wondering if she’d ever get a full season of feeling like her old self. But, in the 2021-22 school year, the Upper Iowa University Peacock graduate student finally got her chance to have a full cross-country, indoor track and field, and outdoor track and field season.

(Photos submitted by Macey White)

The 2017 Mount Pleasant Area Junior-Senior High School graduate has had an interesting road to Fayette, Iowa. In fact, it was not her first school. She spent two years at both St. Vincent College and Kutztown University, earning a degree in business administration at the latter.

Each place helped her in different ways, with being a Bearcat helping her get used to the overall college experience and running with a full cross-country team for the first time. Kutztown helped her raise her game to run with and against some of the top Division II runners in the country. However, each of these stints at these schools brought injuries and tough times. Much of her career as a Bearcat and Golden Bear was spent recovering from recurring stress fractures. Then, COVID-19 hit and put a damper to what she thought would be the end of her college running career.

She already had a degree and had started working full-time at Gingerbread Man Running Company in Greensburg. But, she made a wise decision to leave her name in the transfer portal. Unexpectedly, she heard from Nate Rucker, the Peacocks Head Track and Field and Cross-Country coach. To her surprise and delight, he offered her a generous scholarship to come help be a leader for his teams.

After considering, White decided to take the chance and move out of Pennsylvania for the first time. The result has been nothing but positive for the former WPIAL stand out. She’s met great friends, found love for the sport of running again, and is nearing the completion of a masters degree. She even ran in all her scheduled invitationals or meets last season for the first time in her career.

Despite dealing with a calf injury currently, Macey White is excited for what’s left in her sixth and final year of college running. Amazingly, this is only Geer number eight of her running career as half of her high school days were spent playing softball.

It’s quite impressive to go from lone cross country runner on her Mount Pleasant team to college athlete in just two years. In just four total years of running, she also then became a Division II athlete for two elite conferences in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) and the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC).

Though it’s her last go around of college running, she’s inspired to keep on going and hopes to one day qualify for the Boston Marathon. The tank has been refilled, her passion regained, and knowledge accumulated over these last few years. Now, it’s time to heal and get her conditioning back.

Best of luck as you move forward, Macey! Thank you for the chance to share much of your story 🏃🏻‍♀️🧑🏻‍💼