Written by Doug Goodnough
Amy Sayers Peters, ’01, was a state champion track and cross country runner who had a scholarship offer to run at NCAA Division I Rice University.
However, the Mississippi native was also a standout swimmer, winning the 50-meter freestyle state championship in the pool.
So why not do both in college? When Hillsdale College offered her that opportunity, she took it. Peters was Hillsdale’s first Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference champion in swimming, winning the 200-meter intermediate in 2000. Also a standout runner for the Chargers, she is still a multi-sport athlete more than 20 years later, competing in triathlons and Ironman competitions. In 2017, she represented the U.S. at the World Triathlon Championship Series in Australia, finishing seventh in her age group. Peters said the competitive fires still burn brightly.
“I was actually a swimmer first, and I didn’t really pick up distance running until I was a sophomore in high school,” Peters said. “It turned out that I was pretty good at running. Swimming was something I had done for almost all my life, and I sure didn’t want to lose it. So, Hillsdale provided me a super sweet opportunity to continue both of the sports that I enjoyed.”
She said swimming and running were a good complement when it came to training.
“I’m just not sure that my legs could have survived four years of competing for three seasons a year,” Peters said of her Hillsdale track schedule, which had her competing in cross country (fall) and outdoor track (spring), while swimming during the indoor track season. “Swimming was a gift to me in that it maintained great fitness without any pounding on my legs. And it gave me a mental break from running. I was able to come into the outdoor season fresher and healthier.”
Peters said the triathlon allows her to continue her love of swimming and running. However, the third leg, the bicycle, is still a challenge.
“And it’s the longest leg,” Peters said of the triathlon format. “I’ve always been a little irritated at whoever set up the triathlon, that it’s not more evenly distributed. I came very naturally to the swimming and running, but I was never on a bike team.”
The COVID-19 pandemic slowed down international triathlon competitions for a couple of years, and Peters said she continues to train and compete to one day hopefully return to the world stage. However, she and her husband, Jamie, ’01, whom she met at Hillsdale, are currently training to run a marathon in Mississippi in December. If that goes well, they hope to compete in the 2025 Boston Marathon.
Peters is beginning her second year as athletic director of the Lake County School District in Leadville, Colorado. She coached high school cross country and track and field for more than 20 years and was named the 2021 Colorado Cross Country Coach of the Year.
“Lake County has a really strong history of distance running,” said Peters of her home, which is more than 10,000 feet above sea level nestled in the Rocky Mountains. “We have more state titles than any other school in Colorado.”
In fact, Lake County finished either first or second in the state during the past four years, but now Peters has given up coaching to ensure she can succeed in her new role.
“Now I coach them all,” she said, laughing. “Actually, my athletic director philosophy is to come alongside our other coaches and figure out how I can best support them, how I can champion their programs. I feel it’s been a great transition, and I really love the job.”
She and her husband also have another full-time job of raising their eight children (five biological, three adopted), five of whom still live at home. They had been able to work out their schedules to homeschool their children until recently.
“It was a pretty good tag team for a while,” said Peters, who has had to adjust family life around her new role as athletic director.
She said she originally came to Hillsdale College because of the opportunity to play multiple sports, but it developed into much, much more.
“I loved being an athlete because I had a close community right off the bat before school even started,” said Amy, who was a mathematics and Christian studies double major and was also named Outstanding Senior Woman. “One question I asked throughout college was ‘How does my faith relate to every area of life?’”
She said taking classes from the late Dr. Michael Bauman helped her “hash out” the answer to that question.
“I had no idea what that was going to mean for me as a career, but I know that it made me a better person,” she said. “College was such a great season of maturing and growing and doing it with some really awesome people.”
Doug Goodnough, ’90, is Hillsdale’s director of Alumni Marketing. He enjoys connecting with fellow alumni in new and wonderful ways.
Published in September 2024
