by Creg Jantz

When it comes time for CWRU senior Tim George to choose a home near his private practice or the hospital at which he is a resident, he might try to find a place around three to six miles away. Then he could run to work in anywhere from 16 to 35 minutes.

Tim George

George, who will receive an undergraduate degree in biology from CWRU this month, is a very experienced runner-whether it is on an 8-kilometer course (five miles; best time 28:10) during cross-country or the 5,000- and 10,000-meter run (3.1 and 6.2 miles; best times 16:33 and 34.54) during indoor and outdoor track season over the last four years as a Spartan.

In covering all that ground he has collected the maximum of 12 letters, four each in three sports that take place in three different seasons (fall, winter and spring).

"It's very time consuming," George said. "I think one of the secrets was that by doing three sports I was in season all year around, so I never knew what it was like to be out of season. That was an asset rather than a hindrance."

Tough on the grades? Apparently not. George has the highest cumulative grade point average (3.97) of any other CWRU senior student-athlete (58).

"It's a lot of work, but the big thing is just doing it a day at a time," George said. "Having a high grade point over the course of four years may seem like a huge thing, but if you look at it on a day-to-day basis, then it is just one test at a time."

Success in athletics and academics is not the only thing George has had during his tenure in University Circle. He recorded the hat trick by finding his life partner at CWRU in senior Liz Hanschen."

"I always new the possibility existed that I may find my wife here," George said. "A lot of people get married in college and a lot of people don't. I feel lucky that I did."

Hanschen, a native of Austin, Tex., is a four-year letter winner herself on the women's basketball team and also is graduating this year with an engineering (systems and control) degree. The couple has been engaged since last spring and will marry this June in Texas.

George, a Hudson, Ohio, native, will receive an undergraduate degree in biology from CWRU next month and then head south to Atlanta to attend Emory University's school of medicine. He is leaning toward studying surgery but unsure of what kind. One thing he is sure of is why he chose Emory.

"Emory has some clinical opportunities I don't think you can get elsewhere," George explained. "They have a huge community hospital (Grady Memorial) that is chronically understaffed by doctors, so med students get hands-on experience."

Throughout George's career at CWRU he has made a point not to or practice competitively on Sunday's due to his religious beliefs. He said he feels that anything he has achieved in college he owes to God.

"Any gifting I have, any perseverance that I have shown in the classroom or in sports, it is all a gift of God," he said. "It's my conviction that He doesn't want us doing ordinary work on Sunday, and it's the least I can do to obey that."

Well the work this student-athlete has done in the classroom and on the trail and track over the last four years in University Circle has been anything but ordinary.

 

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