For every race, Hannah Whetzel wears the same socks, hair ribbons, and clips. She also eats exactly 40 cheerios and two gummy worms. The junior from Tucson, Ariz. has competed in a pair of 3000-meter and 5000-meter races this season.
 
Whetzel also earned Pac-12 All-Academic honors for the second year in a row and is pursuing a degree in Mechanical Engineering.
 
When asked why she chose her major, Whetzel said, "I really didn't know what I wanted to do coming into my freshman year. I was really good at math in high school and figured I should use that to my advantage. In mechanical [engineering] you can do a lot with the major. It's a lot of physics type problems and applied math. Your job is to solve problems. It's solving math problems, but it's also about solving problems in the world and I really like that."
 
Every athlete has their own reason for choosing the University of Arizona, but Whetzel took a very unique path.
 
"I originally chose Arizona for the school, not the track program," said Whetzel. "I wasn't planning on being on the team, and actually decided May of my senior year after talking with the coaches after I already committed to the school. Arizona is a great school in general, and has an especially good engineering program."
 
Mechanical engineering has a lot of challenge courses, her favorite, a biomedical engineering course.
 
"We are learning a lot about X-Rays and MRIs which relates to me and running because I have been injured and had MRIs before," Whetzel said. "It is really cool to see how engineering applies to real life and running specifically, more so than some of my other classes."
 
Assistant Coach Tim Riley added, "What is impressive about Hannah is her major. A lot of people think you can't have a hard major and do athletics, but she is showing that you can and do it to a high degree. She competes year round for us, which makes it even harder. Anyone can do it and she is definitely proof."
 
Being a student-athlete teaches a lot of athletes a lot of skills that useful later on in careers. Whetzel emphasized that "my coaches have really helped me less worried. They actually take away my watch so I'm not freaking out about my times. They are trying to help me be more relaxed about things and to just have fun. I've definitely gotten more relaxed about things since my freshman year of college. Even if I don't have great times, I still am more relaxed knowing that I got a good workout in and did something good for my body."
 
As for her summer plans, Whetzel is interning at Raytheon as a Manufacturing Engineering intern.

"I'm not exactly sure what I want to do when I graduate," added Whetzel, "but I think this internship will really give me a better idea of what I want to do. I'm from Tucson and Raytheon is the best place to work for engineering so I'm very excited."