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20 CAVALIER CORNER BY JIM DAVES M ichaela Meyer is only going to have one year of com- petition for the Virginia track and field program. As a graduate transfer from Delaware, the 2021 campaign will be the only season she races for the Cavaliers. But what a season it has been. An All-American performer for the Blue Hens and holder of seven school records, Meyer has managed to improve her times and performances, and become a consis- tently elite competitor under UVA head coach Vin Lananna. He is considered one of the most successful and accomplished coaches in the sport's history and special- izes in the distance events. Lananna felt competing at Virginia, and in the ACC, would give Meyer a new stage to challenge herself and improve. "She hasn't had experience at the highest level," Lananna said of Meyer. "She's run fast times, but she did it at a mid-major school. All of a sudden, she's in the Power Five. There's a certain amount of excitement that goes along with that, and she's capitalized on it." Running in the 800- and 1,500-meter events, Meyer has set and reset UVA, meet and facility records multiple times this sea- son. Along the way, she has earned an op- portunity to go to the United States Olympic Trials with the chance to compete in the Summer Games in Tokyo. How did this all come about? You can thank the UVA School of Nursing's gradu- ate program. As a junior at Delaware, Meyer decided to pursue a career in nursing administration. That seemed like a natural profession for the Connecticut native. Her mother, Siobhan, is a family nurse practitioner in Danbury, Conn. Her twin sister, Allison, graduated from the Rochester Institute of Technology this spring and will soon start a career as a physician assistant. "That year I took all of the pre-reqs to apply for an accelerated program. I wanted to make myself the most eligible candidate to get into a nursing program," said Meyer, who received her undergraduate degree in nutrition. When the pandemic shut down the spring sports seasons in 2020, Meyer suddenly found herself with another year of eligibility to run track as a graduate student in addition to the two seasons of cross country eligibil- ity she had remaining. "I started looking at getting my master's in nursing as well as a bachelor's degree," Meyer said, "because that gave me the chance to pursue a two-year program rather than just a one-year, super accelerated program." Meyer looked at the nation's top nursing programs and reached out to those schools' NO TIME TO WASTE Graduate Transfer Michaela Meyer Is Making The Most Of Her UVA Track Experience Meyer was a standout runner at Delaware, and since coming to UVA she has set and reset school, meet and facility records multiple times this season, and qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials. PHOTO BY MATT RILEY/COURTESY UVA