Angela Bizzarri’s accomplishments in the athletic arena are impressive. In 2009, she was honored with the Dike Eddleman Award for the second consecutive year as the University of Illinois Female Athlete of the Year, after earning All-America honors in cross country, indoor track and outdoor track for the second year in a row. Between 2008 and 2009, she broke five school records. All the while, she continues as an undergraduate in the challenging curriculum of Molecular and Cellular Biology.

Few students can claim both a 3.75 GPA and a 4:43 mile.

Bizzarri came to the University of Illinois from Ohio with an interest in math and science, attracted to the university for both its academic and athletic programs. With a desire to someday enter the health care profession, she started out in bioengineering. As biology proved to have more appeal for her than engineering, she gravitated toward MCB.

In order to manage balancing studying, practicing, and competing—and to maintain her superlative mental and physical performance—she has become skilled at time management. “I don’t have a lot of down time,” she admits. She does not watch television, and tends to be studying or practicing from the time she gets up until she goes to bed.

Because many competitions require air travel (she has just returned from a competition in Belgium, which is the farthest her running has taken her so far), she sometimes reads biology in airports or on planes.

Although she takes a smaller course load than many undergraduates, travel sometimes forces her to miss lectures. The most challenging times are toward the end of spring semester, when the most important competitions can coincide with final exams.

There is some overlap between her two pursuits of academics and athletics. She enjoys classes in anatomy and physiology. This allows her to speak to her physical therapists in their own language, idenitfying specific muscles by name. She also has an interest in how cells utilize energy.

When jogging before an exam, she will use the time to mentally recite lists of things she expects to be tested on. It’s not the ideal way to study, she admits, but she does what she has to do. She is earnest in her desire to succeed.

After graduation she would like to continue to compete while completing a graduate degree. Being a physician’s assistant is one occupation that interests her, but she has not ruled out competing in the Olympics.