By Wes Mayberry
SPRINGFIELD — Wittenberg junior Meghan Frazier has come a long way in her athletic career. Starting out as a young gymnast, she never dreamed about all she would later achieve as a high-level collegiate sprinter.
A national qualifier who holds multiple school records at Wittenberg, Frazier has earned numerous accolades as a member of the Tigers' track and field team and recently added one more to her ledger. On March 22, Wittenberg Director of Athletics Brian Agler gathered members of the Wittenberg track and field team together to recognize Frazier as the school's women's sports North Coast Athletic Conference Scholar-Athlete Award honoree for the 2023-24 school year.
"I'm very honored to receive this award alongside all the other wonderful student-athletes across the NCAC. There are a lot of really great kids that we compete with, so I'm very humbled and very honored," Frazier said. "It encourages me to keep working hard, and it feels good to know that my hard work in the classroom and on the track is recognized and appreciated."
Instituted by the NCAC during the 1990-91 school year, the Scholar-Athlete Award annually recognizes one man and one woman from each member institution for outstanding academic and athletic achievement.
During her time at Wittenberg, Frazier has proven to be a model student-athlete with her success both in the classroom and on the track. She is currently pursuing a biology degree with a minor in business and plans to continue her academic pursuits in optometry school after graduating from Wittenberg. Her success in the classroom also earned her Academic All-NCAC and USTFCCCA All-Academic honors as a sophomore last season.
Athletically, Frazier is an eight-time NCAC champion and two-time NCAC Sprinter/Hurdler of the Year honoree in indoor and outdoor track and field who has been part of three NCAC conference championship-winning teams in her time at Wittenberg. She is also the current school record-holder in the outdoor 100 meters (12.10 seconds) and indoor 400 meters (57.36 seconds) and holds the school record as a member of the indoor 4x200 meter relay (1:45.10) and outdoor 4x100 meter relay (47.50 seconds).
A five-time NCAC Sprints/Hurdles Athlete of the Week, Frazier won conference titles in the outdoor 4x100 relay as a freshman, the outdoor 100, 200, 4x100 relay and 4x400 relay as a sophomore and the indoor 60, 200 and 4x400 relay this year. She capped her junior indoor season by qualifying for the NCAA Championships in the 400 in early March, which she described as an eye-opening experience.
"It was a really cool experience, and I hope to be able to go back," she said. "There are three more national meets that I could qualify for, and having this baseline of knowing what to expect will help me not be so nervous next time."
Despite all of her individual success, Frazier cites the Tiger track and field team's growth over the past few years as what she is most proud of. The team placed sixth and seventh at the indoor and outdoor conference meets, respectively, in 2022 but swept both NCAC titles in 2023 and are coming off winning the NCAC championship for the 2024 indoor season.
"To know that my hard work is part of that is a great feeling," Frazier said. "We're taking Wittenberg track in a direction to be a Division III powerhouse, which is exciting to know that we all get to be a part of that."
Wittenberg track and field head coach Paris Hilliard is certainly glad to have Frazier on his team.
"Meghan is a true example of what it means to be a Wittenberg student-athlete," he said. "She manages her time well and handles all the aspects of college very well. She is extremely dedicated and driven and is thoroughly deserving of the NCAC Scholar-Athlete Award. Her track and field family is extremely proud of her academic and athletic achievements."
A native of Alliance, Ohio, which is home to a school with a highly successful track and field program of its own in Mount Union, Frazier grew up in a family of athletes. Both of her parents were college athletes, and her brothers played football and baseball. She thus gravitated toward sports but didn't start out as a runner.
"I started out with gymnastics because my parents wanted me to work all the different muscles in my body and learn how to control my body before I started doing other sports," she said.
Frazier joined the volleyball and track and field teams in middle school and continued in those sports throughout her time at Alliance High School. As a sophomore at AHS, she decided she wanted to pursue becoming a collegiate track athlete and began training and running in her off time and even during volleyball season. Her hard work paid off in the form of conference titles and regional finals appearances in sprint and relay events, and, ultimately, an opportunity to compete at the college level.
Since her dad is a Mount Union employee, Frazier was highly familiar with the Purple Raiders' track and field program but didn't want to attend college in her hometown. At her father's suggestion, she visited Wittenberg and ended up returning to Springfield after visiting a few other schools.
"I was really sold on The Steemer and the weight room at Wittenberg," she said. "I visited some smaller Division I colleges, but they either didn't have an indoor track or it wasn't very high quality. You just couldn't beat the facilities they have here at Wittenberg."
Frazier has also enjoyed the small class sizes and helpful professors at Wittenberg as well as what has been a really supportive track and field coaching staff.
"The coaches definitely care about how their athletes are feeling and what we want to do, and they take that into consideration when they're thinking about race plans," she said. "They're always asking us how our bodies are feeling, which is really helpful in not overworking yourself because track can be pretty strenuous."
Outside of her athletic responsibilities, Frazier has enjoyed her academic pursuits as a biology major. As a young child, she thought of pursuing a career in teaching because of her family's background working in education. But her freshman honors biology class at AHS pointed her in a new direction. After graduating from Wittenberg with her biology degree, she hopes to be accepted into optometry school at Ohio State University.
Pursuing a career as an optometrist while simultaneously being a high-level performer as a track athlete is no easy feat. But Frazier has found ways to do just that thanks to her dedication, time management and careful planning of her schedule.
With a year-plus left in her academic and athletic careers at Wittenberg, Frazier has time to garner more achievements and accolades. Upon leaving Springfield in 2025, though, she hopes she is remembered even more for her leadership and effort.
"I hope to leave a legacy of hard work," she said. "I'm not super outgoing, but I feel like I've started to do a good job of leading by example and showing the underclassmen what hard work looks like and where hard work will take you. Balancing academics and athletics can be hard, and there are going to be days when you're tired or have other things on your mind, but still giving your best effort at practice can take you far and allow you to experience some really cool things."