Alex Plemmons ’15 earned this year’s Ruth Peterson Award for academic excellence. The award is presented to the Midwest Conference female student-athlete who posted the highest grade point averages during her junior year, while lettering in at least two sports.

What does receiving the Ruth Peterson Award mean to you?

It’s definitely a huge honor. First of all, I’m surprised that I’m the first person from Grinnell to get it because I know that everyone here takes academics really seriously. It really means a lot to be recognized for both academics and athletics because both are very important to me and I feel like it’s normally just one or the other. I think that’s the biggest part.

What is the toughest part about being a student-athlete?

I think that balancing both is very difficult because, like I said, both are very important to me and I know it’s the same for everyone else that’s a student athlete. It’s hard to figure out how much time you should put into academics and how much time you should put in athletics to be successful in both.

How do you balance your academics and sports?

I’ve always considered academics to be the top priority and athletics to be more something that I just enjoy doing, but with that being said, you have to put a lot of time in to be successful in athletics. I think I just generally try to devote about the same time each day to athletics and then just plan a lot ahead of time for academics.

Do you have any tips for time management?

Just really planning ahead. I’ve noticed with myself and with my teammates that it gets the most difficult when you wait until the last minute to do some academic thing just because you can’t devote like six hours in one night to one project because of sports.

During the golf season, you injured your back. How was the recovery period?

I’m doing well with that. I hurt a muscle in my back and that was difficult for golf because it is one of the main muscles that you use for golfing, but I think it’s healed fully. I haven’t noticed it in basketball since I started practicing.

Is there a transition period you go through from the golf to basketball season?

This year was a little different because I was injured, so I took time off after golf that I normally wouldn’t because I had to rehab a little bit after the golf season before I could do basketball. That was a little bit different, but normally I have about a week between the two. I mostly just run that week to try and get in shape again. But I … do have to be patient with myself at the beginning of the season, and to realize that I haven’t been playing basketball so it might take a week or two until I get back to normal.

What is your favorite thing to do in your free time?

I don’t really have a lot! Normally, if I don’t have golf or basketball I still do athletics regardless. I like horseback riding a lot and I don’t get to do that much over the school year here, but I do over the summer.

Do you have any fun plans for winter break?

I’m going to go home for about a week and then we come back for basketball, so I’ll be here most of the break. It will be fun regardless. It’s fun hanging out with my friends.

— Compiled by Nora Coghlan ’17