University of Minnesota Athletics
Warm-Up Lap: Q&A with Angie Guenther
11/3/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Track & Field
MINNEAPOLIS - Senior Angie Guenther is back for her fifth year with the Golden Gopher women's track & field team, hoping to make the most of her final year competing for the Maroon & Gold. The White Bear Lake, Minn., native is confident with the team's fall training and looks forward to the official start of the season in January 2017.
Guenther, a six-time Big Ten Championships competitor and three-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree, talks with GopherSports.com about fall training, classes and future plans, goals for the season, and more.
Gopher Sports: How was your summer break?
Angie Guenther: Summer was good. I graduated in the spring so I didn't take any classes, which was nice. We did a lot of lifting, which was four days a week and then a lot of optional training. I know a lot of the girls were out there a couple times a week just for fun and to keep in touch with implements, which is good. I worked a lot. I worked as a PCA taking care of four women in a group home setting. The hours are extremely flexible.
GS: What's next for you academically? What Master's program are you enrolled in?
AG: My undergraduate degree was Health and Wellness with an emphasis area in Psychology, and now I am in the School of Public Health and getting my Master's in Nutrition. It's an MPH in Nutrition. It's a two-year program. It's going great. I was nervous because I didn't know how hard it would be, what the time commitment would be, how it would work with track. I have found that undergrad has prepared me really well for it. It's been a pretty smooth transition into graduate school, which is kinda a scary thing.
GS: What is your ultimate career goal?
AG: I am not exactly sure. I am really interested in preventing chronic diseases through behavioral changes. I am thinking community level public health kind of prevention programs, reaching out, educating type of thing.
GS: How is fall training going?
AG: It's good; it's different than last year. We kind of have a different approach where in the first part of the fall we normally do a really hard lift, really hard boot camp. Coach Miller kinda scaled back so far, and we have been taking advantage of the outdoor facility as long as the weather allows us. In the weight room we still work hard, but it was more manageable and really put a lot of emphasis on taking as many throws as possible. That's really been fun, we have been playing around with different weights, different implements, and different techniques. There is a lot more emphasis on actually throwing than in years past, which has been really nice because it kinda seems like a continuation from the season last year, which is kinda a big confidence booster as well. You don't feel like you peaked and then have to start over this season, so that's been fun.
GS: How are the newcomers fitting in so far?
AG: We have Natalie [Manders] and then we have Ryan [Crotty], who's a walk on javelin thrower. It's a transition from high school, but I have been really impressed with how they have been stepping up in the workouts. Lifting can be a barrier especially if you don't have a lot of lifting background, so I have been really impressed with how they have taken on those lifts and those workouts. Ryan especially has an incredible personality, she's extremely positive and it almost catches you off guard because it's so sincere. The throws group likes to joke around a lot, and it's going well.
GS: How have you stepped into a leadership role this year?
AG: I had an in-between leadership role last year, I wasn't quite a captain but I was upperclassman and had a lot of experience. Transitioning into the captain role this year hasn't been that difficult necessarily because I feel like I was kinda a little bit there last year, unofficially. It has been pretty easy, just a lot of mutual respect between my teammates and I. The throws groups is a really easy group to be captain of because everyone is responsible, everyone wants to be the best they can be, and everyone is working hard for the team. I don't have to buckle down on them; they buckle down on themselves. It makes my job easy, and I know it makes Coach Miller's job easier.
GS: What are your expectations for the team culture this year? Any shifts or changes?
AG: I think its just maintaining our group identity. We want to continue working hard and having fun together. We have this theme of family; we are a family and even though families butt heads sometimes, that conflict helps us grow in the future. Family isn't perfect, family is when someone screws up but you forgive them -- this is kind of our theme right now, so we are just taking that and moving with it.
GS: On a personal level, what are your goals for the year?
AG: I want to perform well at Big Tens. I would love to win again, but we a lost a lot of big hitters last year. I just want to perform to the best of my ability and help my teammates perform to the best of their ability. I would love to place at outdoor Big Tens, in both disc and hammer. I was a little disappointed with how I performed last year, so I kind of have a little fire in my belly to get back and make up for it. Also, in an ideal world I would love to make it to the NCAA finals, make it to Track Town USA -- that's always the big goal.
GS: Thinking back on your career, how did you first get into track & field?
AG: I almost didn't! I did it in middle school, but it was very causal. In high school I was a big softball player, and I almost continued and played on the school softball team, but my sister, who is a year older than me, was a thrower and she just had so many good things to say about the throws coach. His name is Chuck Stuemke and he is still there. He has been coaching for 25+ years. He has just a huge personality, huge jokester, sarcastic, but an extremely big heart. He was this big bear of a guy because he played football and track at South Dakota, but he is just such an incredible human. So I guess the reason I got into it was my sister and the reason I stayed in it was the coach. The softball team every year would say, 'Hey come out for the softball team.' My first year I was terrible at track, not good at all, it was embarrassing. I really considered quitting my after freshman year and going to play on the softball team. But, I couldn't leave the coach and I couldn't leave my sister, so I stuck with it and, some how, I don't even know how, I got good. A switch turned on, and all of a sudden I was good at it, so it worked out for me in the end.
GS: When did you realize that you were good at track & field?
AG: It was my sophomore year; Coach Miller always teases me about this because I told him, 'I don't know how I got good, I just kind of flailed my body around and the disc went far.' But, all of a sudden I was beating girls, I made it to state, and I placed pretty high at the state meet for a sophomore.
GS: Which event is your favorite?
AG: Hammer, which is funny because I didn't throw hammer at all my freshmen year. I didn't throw hammer at all in high school. I didn't even know what it looked like until I went on my recruiting visit, and they showed me. I really thought I was going to be a discus thrower. The first year I didn't throw hammer at all; I threw javelin. Then when Coach Miller came in, he saw potential in me for being a hammer thrower so I picked it up. I caught on really quickly. It's just been more fun for me because disc is not new and exciting for me anymore. With hammer, I still don't really know what my potential is and how far I can go with it.
GS: How did you choose the University of Minnesota?
AG: That's a good question. When my sister, who is a year older than me, started looking at colleges, she was going for track & field too, she looked at a lot of the DIII and DII schools, and I tagged along with her. I decided that a small school wasn't for me. I was in my rebellious teen stage and decided I was going down south for school. I wanted to get as far away from home as possible and then Lynne [Anderson, former assistant coach] called. I decided I would go on a visit, and I fell in love. I remember it was after the first night, I was in the hotel with my mom and I realized the other schools who I had set up visits with have really big shoes to fill if I am going go there. I remember the group [of throwers at Minnesota], Devin Stanford and Lyndsey Thorpe and those girls and how they interacted with each other. I knew that was the environment I wanted to be around. We might have cold winters and long winters, but if you are surrounded by people who are good people and push you to be better, then there is no limit to what you can do. I knew this is where I wanted to go.
GS: Reflecting on your time here, what stands out as the coolest moment?
AG: I have two, I have a personal moment and I have a team moment. My personal moment was not last year at Big Tens but the year before, at Michigan State, when I threw my PR to place at Big Tens. It was huge for me, it was my last throw, and it was a big PR. I remember shaking afterwards. I couldn't stand up because I was so excited and all that hard work paid off in the last throw, that last chance. I moved up a couple spots, and at that time, it was something that I didn't really see for myself. I never came into that season saying I was going to place in the Big Ten, but then I ended up doing it, so that was my personal favorite moment.
Of course, as a team was winning Big Tens last year was huge because we have such a good group of people. You want everyone to do well. You watch other people work their butts off in the weight room or on the track, and to see that pay off for everyone, even if I personally didn't perform to my best, was incredible. It's validation that you work your butts off, and you're pretty good, so for the team that's my favorite.
GS: Is there anything people would be surprised to learn about you?
AG: I am obsessed with pugs, OBSESSED. I have pug slippers; I have like four pug shirts. I am going to be a crazy pug lady. I have never had a dog in my life, but I just love pugs.
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Players Mentioned
