The NCCAA is pleased to announce Greenville College's Chelsea Gilles as its 2017 Women's Outdoor Track & Field Wheeler Award recipient. Chelsea is senior from Groveland, Ill.
As a Greenville College sprinter, Gilles has competed in the 100, 200, 400, 4x100, and 4x400 events. She holds the school record in the 400 (54.61). She has qualified for the NCCAA outdoor national championships this season in the 200 and 400.
The 2016 NCCAA national champion in the 400, Gilles has rewritten the records book at Greenville College. In all three of her previous seasons, she competed in the 200, 400, and 4x100 at the NCCAA outdoor nationals. In the 400, she progressed from seventh in 2014 to fifth in 2015 before winning last year. Her 4x100 relay team has placed fourth in 2014, seventh in 2015, and sixth in 2016. She finished between the 12th and 17th positions in the 200 every year.
Gilles has faced adversity. During the NCCAA indoor 400 competition in 2016, she became injured and was disappointed to find herself unable to compete three weeks later at the NCAA Division III indoor championships . She returned during the outdoor season, qualified for the NCAA Division III outdoor championships, and was an NCAA Division III All-American with a national runner-up performance. She continued her success in the NCCAA indoor 400 this spring by winning the national championship and placing third in the 200. She continued at the NCAA Division III indoor championships and was the national runner-up in the indoor 400.
A team leader in a multitude of ways, she has served as a volunteer academic mentor for the team's study hall and an academic coach in the college's tutoring program that serves the entire campus. On the track, she is a leader at practice and volunteered to recruit for the program in the fall when the college's track and field sprints coach departed.
Successful in the classroom as a physical education major with a GPA of 3.61, Gilles is a three-time USTFCCCA NCAA Division III academic All-American, a four-time NCCAA all-scholar athlete, a six-time all-conference all-academic team member, a member of Greenville College's dean's list, and a member of Who's Who Among Students. This spring, she was selected to receive the college's June Strahl Award as its top female senior student-athlete and the NCCAA's indoor track and field Wheeler Award.
She has served as a resident chaplain on campus and as a site director off campus at Camp of Champions USA, a Christian summer camp where she has spent three summers and worked with 5-12 year old children.
"It has been said that 'Past performance is the best predictor of future behavior' and if this is true as I believe it is, Chelsea will be quite successful in all areas of life, while caring for others and serving Jesus," said head coach Brian Patton.
"She desires to serve God by serving others, and God has blessed her with a great work ethic and great ability to perform individually under all conditions."