Ruth Hilton still running through it all
Ruth Hilton has it all together, and more. Between training and running with USU’s cross-country team, tutoring other student-athletes and working to earn a math education degree, Hilton “understands what it means to be a student athlete,” said coach Gregg Gensel.
Hilton, a redshirt junior from St. George, has been running for USU since her freshman year. She was a state champion in the 1600 meter when she attended Pine View High School.
One thing that slowed her down was an injury she sustained her sophomore year.
“I messed up my foot,” Hilton said. “It was a confusing year. But it got to be manageable.”
Hilton had tendon inflammation in the ball of her foot, she said, and although it’s been treated, Hilton, Gensel and her trainers have been careful about it.
There is a surgical procedure that could improve the condition of her foot, Hilton said, but right now she manages by icing it and not aggravating the tendons.
“We could have the surgery, but I can deal with it as well,” Hilton said. “They want to be careful and not take the risk of it making anything worse with a surgery right now. As long as I can run with it, I run with it.”
Hilton has not been slowed down since she began treatment and learned to deal with the injury, neither on nor off the track. She said she started out as a mechanical engineering major, but by her sophomore year said she realized she didn’t like it.
“I had already been in a lot of math, and so I decided to switch,” Hilton said, about her change to math education.
Hilton uses her new major to tutor other student-athletes, which the star Aggie runner said it keeps her as busy as possible.
“It kind of fills in any gaps that I would have — in between classes and all other spaces,” Hilton said. “It’s not too time intensive, but it gives me some extra spending money which I use for my RockHaus pass.”
Hilton climbs, too.
“I do. I just started up, so I’m not great,” Hilton said, “but it’s a fun thing to do when I do have some time.”
The question for some is how USU’s cross-country team has done so far this year.
“I think that the fact we only run every other week, sometimes it’s hard to gauge by meets,” Gensel said. “With men’s and women’s we are improving — you can see that at practice.”
When it comes to Hilton personally, Gensel said she is highly intelligent.
“That transfers in her with work ethic, with running,” Gensel said. “It is more of that you have to rein her in and keep her in.”
“As a team we’d like to take home the men’s and women’s WAC tournament,” Hilton said. “Personally I’d like to take individual.”
Hilton said the team is pushing forward, working hard and putting in the miles.
“We would really like to go and take home some good honors,” she said. “I’d love to make it to nationals; it’s hard to do.”
No Aggie team has made it to NCAA Championships, even though there have been individuals throughout the years who have gone. Hilton said the entire team is looking forward eagerly and readily to see what happens.
“I feel like I am improving with workouts. Everything is getting better,” Hilton said. “The team is stepping up where it needs to be. We can’t ever expect how the season will go at the beginning, but it will be fun to see how everyone steps up.”
Overall Hilton said the experience she is getting is one of a pleased college athlete. She is a student, a runner, a tutor and a captain.
“She’s a great runner — a very enthusiastic teammate,” Gensel said. “She always encourages the other runners (and) is very good at being there.”
“There are so many great things about this,” Hilton said. “I love my teammates, my coaches, I can’t wait to go to practice to see what new crazy stuff they have for us. This really gives me a fun student-athlete experience that I wouldn’t get if I was a regular student.”
– mandy.m.morgan@aggiemail.usu