Hailey Carroll ‘26 just wrapped up one of the most successful running careers in recent Geneva memory this spring. The ironic thing is that running was not the main sport she was focused on when she arrived on College Hill.

Hailey grew up in a military family, providing a childhood that traversed the globe. She was born in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, while her father was stationed there. After a few months in Cuba, her family moved to Key West, Florida, before ending up in Italy for a stretch during her preschool and early elementary years. In fact, Hailey went to school at an Italian school and picked up the language so quickly that she often served as a translator for her parents at markets and in public places despite being only five or six years old.

Her family then moved to the state of Washington to live with her grandfather while her dad was deployed in Kuwait for a year, and when he returned, they were stationed in San Antonio, Texas. A stint in Japan followed for a few years before finally settling back in Washington where her father retired from the military.

Geneva women’s basketball coach Michael Grinder was the contact point that drew Hailey to Geneva. She grew up focused on playing college basketball, and Coach Grinder found out about her and began recruiting her. Hailey also ran for a couple years in high school, but basketball was her first love. As her recruitment progressed, though, she realized Geneva would allow her the chance to do both sports in college, which she found the other schools she was looking at less willing to allow.

Hailey didn’t grow up with much of a faith background, and the fact that Geneva was a Christian school didn’t impact her decision much. She just wanted to compete athletically and get a good education. When she arrived, though, Hailey found the Christian environment a bit of a shock to her system, going to chapel weekly and taking Bible classes her freshman year.

She really enjoyed her initial year at Geneva, though, getting plugged into multiple communities that helped her feel at home. Hailey began the year with cross country and immediately began to make friends, while also beginning to take part in open gyms for the basketball team, where she found another strong group of upperclassmen that showed her what it looked like to live a Godly life.

“I got really close with some of the veterans on the basketball team like Taylor (Milroy), Cynthia (Milroy), Mia (San Nicolas) and Makenzie (Barricklow), and on the cross country team, Carmen (Medvit), Audrey (Husted) and Maddie (Castro) became some of my best friends even to this day. All those girls kept me at Geneva when I didn’t know if I could survive living so far away from home in a community that was so different than anything I grew up around.”

By the time her freshman year was winding down, with track and field following the cross country and basketball seasons, Hailey began to feel the effects of competing all year long. She came to the conclusion that she needed to focus on just one sport, and despite growing up primarily focused on basketball, Hailey had more success running her first year at Geneva, including breaking the indoor 800-meter school record, and her love of running began to take precedence over basketball. She met with both Coach Grinder and Geneva’s track and field coach, Phil Thompson, and let them know that she had decided to focus just on running going forward.

It was also during the end of her freshman year that she began to develop a hunger for what it meant to live as a Christian.

“I remember on our spring break trip I took with the track and field team, our whole team went to church that first Sunday, and that was the first time I had been to church since probably middle school. I remember during the sermon thinking, ‘I need to come to church more often. This is where I belong.’ Two days later, when I was on a run with Maddie (Castro), I asked her if I could start going to church with her when we got back to campus, which she was super excited about. So, I began worshiping at College Hill Reformed Church right next to campus where Maddie went, and that became my church home for the rest of college.”

The decision to focus just on running proved to be the correct one. She quickly became one of the best runners in the conference and region during cross country, running alongside her teammate and close friend Carmen. They both qualified for the NCAA Division III National Championship meet by finishing in the top three at the regional meet. She continued her running excellence during the track and field season, winning PAC and NCCAA indoor and outdoor championships in the 800-meter and mile races.

As her sophomore season came to a close, though, she started to battle some health issues. At first, she attributed the pains to a long season of competition, but when she didn’t see improvement as the summer moved along, Hailey began to visit doctors to try to figure out what was going on as she fought extreme fatigue and pains in her back and legs. Unfortunately doctors were not able to determine a diagnosis quickly, so she was forced to miss the following cross country season, and it wasn’t until December when doctors finally diagnosed her with Celiac disease, an autoimmune condition that causes significant inflammation in the body.

Beginning in January, she began a specific diet that allowed her to make noticeable improvement, so much so that she ran in a couple of indoor track and field meets late in the season. However, she continued to battle back and leg pain during those weeks that were later found to be caused by a chronic disc issue in her back, forcing her to miss the outdoor season as she tried to figure out a way forward.

The following summer was a frustrating one for her, as she wondered if she would ever be healthy and able to run again.

“That summer was a time of more growth in my faith,” Hailey recalls. “I remember praying a lot and asking God that if competitive running was in my future, please let that happen. And if was not, please help me to be content with that and figure out what your plan is for me, whether that’s coaching from the sideline or getting into something else.”

Thankfully, the Lord provided Hailey with an excellent physical therapist during those summer months that put together a great plan for healing and recovery while giving her confidence she could get back to a top running level.

She didn’t begin running again until the preseason cross country camp prior to her senior year. Hailey missed the opening meet of the season as she continued to improve her conditioning, running for the first time the following week at Allegheny. Geneva’s next meet at Louisville was when she felt more like herself again, confident that she would be able to excel again while managing her health in a way that would allow her to compete all year.

What she couldn’t have known was the historic season that both she and her team was about to embark on. She again qualified for the NCAA Division III Cross Country National Championship meet, along with Carmen, while the duo helped Geneva win its first women’s PAC Cross Country Championship in program history. More PAC Championships followed in the indoor and outdoor track and field seasons, while Hailey broke more school records and received multiple accolades, including being named the Most Valuable Women’s Track Athlete at the PAC Outdoor Championships.

Because of the health struggles her junior year, Hailey still has a season of eligibility left in cross country and outdoor track and field. She would have loved to stay at Geneva, but Geneva does not offer a graduate degree in clinical exercise physiology, which is what she wants to pursue. Coach Thompson helped connect her with the nationally strong program at Wisconsin La Crosse where she is planning to work on her graduate degree while using her last year of eligibility to run next season.

While Hailey is moving on to Wisconsin La Crosse, she is so grateful for her four years at Geneva and how it has molded her and shaped her into the woman she is today.

“I can’t imagine where I would be if I hadn’t chosen to come to Geneva. I know I wouldn’t have been exposed to the Christian community and knowing what living like a Christian actually looks like. Going forward, I know there is still so much to learn and so much to be experienced. There are so many things that I’m excited to explore that I’ve seen modeled at Geneva. Learning how to apply what I’ve learned at Geneva athletically, academically and spiritually as I continue on with my life, hopefully eventually building a family, is something I’m really excited about and grateful for. If it weren’t for the people I met and the mentors I’ve had at Geneva, I can honestly say I don’t know what my life would look like right now, but I know I wouldn’t be the person I am today without Geneva.”