Graduation! A happy occasion. A chance to salute students for 4 or 5 years of hard work and hopefully high levels of achievement. But for Bridgewater College, two young ladies walked across the stage recently with degrees in hand that definitely hit the “high levels of achievement mark” and then some.. Amber Celen from Track and Field and Christina Herbert from Women’s Golf, both leave school as National Champions, and high performers in the classroom.
Celen, who won the National Championship in the Indoor 60 meter and 200 meter in 2017, was selected as the D-3 National Athlete of the year and earned All American Honors. Amber just took 1st place in the 100 meter at the Mideast Invitational event. She also earned a spot on the All Academic Squad.
Herbert, won the National Championship in Women’s Golf in 2017, and was named the National Player of the year. Christina also became the first Division 3 Golfer to win the Virginia Sports Information Directors Statewide player of the year, and she also won All American honors and was an Academic All District selection.
From my first conversations with these two ladies in 2016, both said their goal was to win a National Championship, and both did it. A lot of athletes say it, but either don’t have the work ethic, determination or luck along the way to get it done. But, with each record set and honor won, both would deflect attention from themselves and begin to focus on the next goal.
For a college the size of Bridgewater to be able to garner National attention from two athletes in the same graduating class is nothing short of amazing. Roughly 30% of the students that attend Bridgewater are athletes. As of the fall of 2017, around 1900 Full Time students called Bridgewater home, with 99% of them receiving some sort of financial aid, according to the schools website.
Every student athlete has dreams of making an impact on their sport at their chosen school, but few leave the marks that Amber Celen and Christina Herbert have left at Bridgewater. So, let’s congratulate the recent graduates but offer a special salute to two champions who left us inspired and honestly in awe of their accomplishments.
