Milligan Cyclist Headed to the Olympics

Milligan University student-athlete Megan Jastrab has been selected as a member of Team USA’s track cycling team that will compete at the Olympics this summer in Tokyo.

“I was out on a training ride and I got the call,” Jastrab said, according to Milligan’s athletics website. “It was unforgettable to hear those words, ‘you’re going to the Olympics.’”

Jastrab, 19, was the youngest person selected to the team. A winner of 3 world championships and 27 national championships at the junior level, she is scheduled to compete in team pursuit qualifying on Aug. 2 and in an event called the Madison on Aug. 6. (In the Madison, riders switch off every two laps and sprint every 10 laps; it is a first-time Olympic event.)

Jastrab, of Apple Valley, Calif., just finished her sophomore year at Milligan in eastern Tennessee.

“She’s one of the hardest workers on the team,” Milligan cycling head coach Zach Nave said. “She holds a 4.0 [and always] takes care of what she needs to do. It’s great to see somebody’s hard work and dedication pay off the way that it has for Megan. On and off the bike, you can’t ask for a better athlete to have on your team.”

In her first season at Milligan, Jastrab was the Collegiate National Champion in the Individual Pursuit (3K) and led the Buffs to a Collegiate National Championship in the Women’s Team Pursuit.

Jastrab, who is double majoring in business and exercise science, is believed to be the first former or current Milligan student-athlete to compete in the Olympics.

In other Milligan-related, Olympic-qualifying news:

• Emily Kearney competed in the 5,000-meter running race at Great Britain’s Olympic Trials on Sunday, but she did not qualify. (Kearney, a native of Wirral, England, won the NAIA national titles in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters several weeks ago while running for Milligan.)

• Milligan track coach Chris Layne coached former Dartmouth standout Abbey Cooper to a fourth-place finish in the 5,000-meter race at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in Eugene, Ore. Cooper narrowly missed an Olympic berth.