Track & Field and Volleyball
On her application for admission to Carleton, Minneapolis native Melissa Hamilton-Crutchfield indicated she “might” participate in track and field and volleyball in college. Four years later she had earned eight varsity letters in track and volleyball, seven All-Conference honors and two All-America citations.
Hamilton-Crutchfield, who also participated in Ultimate Frisbee while at Carlteon, began her impressive list of track honors by claiming the 1983 MIAC title and qualifying for nationals in the 100-meter dash and placing second in the conference 200-meters. She was also a member of Carleton’s 1985 All-American 400-meter relay team.
The following spring, Hamilton-Crutchfield was a member of the MIAC-champion 400-meter relay squad.
In 1985, after earning four indoor track All-Conference citations, including MIAC titles in the 55 and 300-meter events, she advanced to the indoor national meet, where she earned her second All-America award with a fifth-place finish in the 55-meters. A torn hamstring prevented her from receiving even more awards in outdoor track the following spring. That year Hamilton-Crutchfield received the physical education department’s Track Special Team award, an honor that she described as a career highlight.
In volleyball, Hamilton-Crutchfield earned four letters and was named captain as a junior in 1983.
Of her time at Carleton, Hamilton-Crutchfield, a sociology-anthropology major, remarked, “It was through challenge of both athletic and academic competition and rehabilitation that I gained a greater sense of self-worth.”
In 1991 she earned a master’s degree in exercise physiology and fitness management from New York University.
In the summer of 1996, Hamilton-Crutchfield realized a dream by “finally” making to the Olympics – as a spectator. “And,” she says, “I didn’t have to go through a single day of training!”