CULLMAN —
After a year away from the sport she shone in during her prep career, a 2011 West Point graduate will make her return to competitive running as a member of the University of North Alabama’s first women’s track and field team this fall.
With no shortage of family members looking over her shoulder early Monday afternoon, Whitney Brown signed a scholarship offer to attend and compete for the Lions.
“It’s been pretty hard,” Brown said of her year-long absence from track. “I’ve missed it a lot. But I’m excited about going to UNA in the fall.”
Brown attended Wallace State and knocked out a great deal of nursing prerequisites after graduating as a Warrior. Although she enjoyed her time at the junior college, especially being so close to home, Brown decided to make the switch to UNA after being recruited by cross country coach Scott Trimble, who will take on the same role with the recently added women’s track and field team.
“I really liked the people there and the coach,” Brown said. “I wasn’t very sure I wanted to go until I went down there, saw the school and met him.
“It’ll be a change. It kind of makes me nervous to leave.”
Brown, the overall girls MVP for the Cullman County Track and Field Championship in her senior year of high school, will run the 100-, 200- and 400-meter dashes for the Lions. While at West Point, she broke the school record in the 200-meter dash, which had been held by her mother, Laura, for nearly 20 years. Brown first qualified for the state track and field championship as a seventh-grader and continued to do so every year of her prep career with the Warriors.
Brown said she will continue to pursuit nursing at UNA with aspirations to one day work in surgery.
Brown is one of 10 in-state student-athletes to sign national letters of intent with UNA’s track and field and cross country programs this summer. Another on that list is recent Fairview graduate MarLah Stancil, who inked with the school early last month.
The addition of a women’s track and field team gives the university 14 varsity sports and helps the Lions reach another requirement as they move toward achieving NCAA Division-I status.
‰ Rob Ketcham can be reached at 256-734-2131, ext. 257 or at robk@cullmantimes.com.
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West Point graduate Whitney Brown, front and center, signed a scholarship Monday to attend and compete in track and field at the University of North Alabama. She is accompanied by her parents, Laura and Kenneth. In the back row, from left to right are Brooke Marchman, cousin; Cole Brown, brother; Phyllis Marchman, grandma; J.P. Brown, grandfather; and Lorene Brown, grandma. Rob Ketcham
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LOCAL SPORTS: Warrior graduate signs with UNA track team
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