NCCU Student-Athlete of the Month: Bethany White

Bethany White

By KEVIN BUCZEK


NCCU ASID

DURHAM, N.C. – North Carolina Central University junior sprinter Bethany White has been named the NCCU Student-Athlete of the Month for May 2018 in recognition of her outstanding performance on the track and in the classroom.

White captured a pair of silver medals at the 2018 MEAC Outdoor Track & Field Championships and she then qualified for the 2018 NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Outdoor Track & Field East Preliminary Championships in a pair of events to conclude her junior season in May.

The Gaithersburg, Maryland, product set a pair new personal record times on her way to securing her two silver medals at the MEAC Championships in Greensboro, North Carolina. White completed the 100m dash in 11.28 seconds and the 200m dash in 23.31 seconds. Her times ranked 19th and 27th, respectively, in the East Region.

White advanced to the East Preliminary Championship in Tampa, Florida. The two-time NCCU women’s track & field Most Valuable Player (MVP) award winner qualified for the 100m dash regional final by placing second in the fifth heat of Thursday’s first round with a time of 11.33 seconds. During Friday’s regional final, White suffered a leg injury and crossed the finish line in 11.91 seconds, which was not fast enough to advance to the national semifinal in Oregon. The injury also forced White to withdraw from first-round action in the 200m dash.

Other highlights from White’s outdoor season included winning the 100m dash at both the Raleigh Relays and the Duke Invitational. She broke her own Duke Invitational meet record by posting a time of 11.42 seconds in the preliminaries to advance to the finals as the top qualifier. In the 100m finals, White edged Courtney Warner of East Carolina University by five-one-hundredths-of-a-second to win the event in 11.60 seconds. White’s first 100m dash win came at the Raleigh Relays on March 30 with a mark of 11.41 seconds.

White is a mass communication major at NCCU, who boasts a 3.302 cumulative grade point average (GPA). She is on track to graduate from NCCU in May of 2019 she plans to work in government public affairs/media relations. White earned her second MEAC Outdoor Track Performer of the Week award in 2018 and is a 2018 MEAC All-Academic honoree.