UW-Madison student-athlete Lauren Lasseter knows how to "stick to it" when it comes to both pole vaulting and engineering.

Lasseter sprints, pole in hand, in the Shell.

Many accomplished collegiate student-athletes begin to develop their excellence in athletics early in life. However, Lasseter did not realize her jumping abilities until she joined the track team during her junior year of high school.

When she tore the cartilage in her knee in high school, Lasseter could not run or jump for a lengthy 22 weeks. This meant that her sophomore year softball season would immediately end and her chances of regaining her prior strength in order to play at the varsity level the following year would be slight.

Recognizing this unpleasant reality, Lasseter reluctantly joined the track team her junior year of high school, so she could continue to compete in sports.

"Turns out that getting hurt was one of the best things that ever happened to me," Lasseter says.

After graduating from Verona High School, Lasseter was recruited by the UW-Madison Women's Track Team in the fall of 2002, specializing in pole vaulting and the high jump. Initially, Lasseter was unsure of her ability to perform at a Division I level.

She was not happy with some of her first performances on the track team. Having performed badly at a home meet, Lasseter believed her chances of traveling to an away event would be unlikely. On the contrary, Lasseter traveled with the team to a meet in Seattle, Wash., where she beat her personal best jump by 11 inches. This performance placed her fourth on the all-time list for UW-Madison women pole vaulters.

While traveling across the country can be a great team bonding experience as well as an ideal means of seeing new places and meeting new people, it does not come without costs. Traveling to competitions during the season requires a significant amount of focus and diligence in order to complete coursework while mentally preparing for the meet. Track meets take Lasseter all around the country including to New York, California and, frequently, Iowa. These Thursday to Sunday trips leave little time for studies and sometimes impede upon exams.

"[You] have to have a professor who is understanding," Lasseter says.

Many times the most important meets of the year coincide with the most important academic period of the year: final exams. Every year, the track team's Big Ten competition falls on final exam week. The conflict of interests between school and athletics imposes additional stress and requires some negotiation between Lasseter and her professors. This rescheduling can cause clusters of exams within a two- to three-day period. This requires an enormous ability to organize and allot an appropriate amount of study time for each class as well as maintain track practice schedules and, of course, sleep. Lasseter says, in some cases, athletes must multi-task by taking exams while on the road to a meet.

If the academic half of being a student-athlete was not challenging enough, the athletic side is often taxing as well. Lasseter says she has pole vaulted in many difficult conditions. Some of these circumstances include rain, sleet, wind and extreme heat. At one meet the rain was extremely heavy, yet the officials decided not to delay the event, and Lasseter had to compete. After every vault, helpers had to sweep puddles off the runway.

This year was Lasseter's third season as a student-athlete at UW-Madison and her third year in the College of Engineering. Despite the rigorous athletic schedule, she has still maintained a high level of academic achievement. Majoring in electrical engineering, a typical semester's course load consists of 12-13 credits. Lasseter's natural ability in the realm of mathematics and the sciences shines through when asked her feelings in regards to the difficulty and amount of course work required for her major. Lasseter feels she is "at a good pace and is learning a lot."

Lasseter's abilities have earned her not only the satisfaction of knowing she is an up-and-coming female engineer but also several awards for her talents both on and off the track. She has received several scholarships for her distinguished academic performance through the College of Engineering. Lasseter also received the prestigious Academic All-Big Ten honor.

Lasseter is an electrical engineering student, pole vaulter, and Academic All-Big Ten Honor recipient.

Unfortunately, Lasseter is injured once again, forcing her to red-shirt this year's track season due to a back injury. In an effort to maintain her physical strength and recover from the injury, Lasseter continues to cross train four days a week by lifting weights and biking. She is still very much a part of the team.

"Track is a team sport just as much as an individual sport," Lasseter says.

Dedicated to this mentality, she often finds herself assisting her fellow teammates by videotaping jumps. Coaches can watch these videos and offer the athletes feedback on their technique.

Through times of difficulty, Lasseter says that what she enjoys most about being a part of the UW Women's Track Team is "a good sense of unity" between teammates. Indeed, it is the combination of common goals and support for each other that ensures a close-knit and successful team.

Her busy life doesn't stop there; she is currently gaining first-hand engineering experience. Outside of training, attending class and studying, Lasseter works part-time at Pegasus Lab, which specializes in nuclear fusion research. The lab performs controlled plasma experiments in hopes of learning how to use plasmas as an energy source. Her role at Pegasus Lab includes working directly with machinery in addition to using her knowledge of circuitry in designing circuits on the computer.

Clearly, being an engineering student and a collegiate athlete poses both physical and intellectual demands. Lasseter has no complaints. In fact, she thrives on a busy schedule. "If I'm less busy, I'm less productive," she says.

Lasseter believes her work ethic is a major contributing factor to her success as a student-athlete and will most likely have a positive influence in her future endeavors. She claims that track "teaches discipline, team work and [how to] balance time."

In the near future, Lasseter hopes to gain more experience in the engineering field by doing a co-op or internship. She later hopes to use her engineering degree to start her career in an engineering firm. A mix of innate talent, intelligence and discipline, Lasseter knows how to "stick to it."