Fitting In: A Hunger To Compete

College athletics require a level of athleticism, determination, and a competitive hunger to be the best athlete you can be. 

After leaving college, a select few are lucky enough to play at the professional level or on the Olympic level, but many can be left looking for a way to fill that competitive void.

Some former college athletes ride off into the sunset, with their senior year being their last ever meaningful competition, while some become coaches as a way to stay close to the sport they’ve dedicated their lives to.

But others cannot seem to shake the itch to compete. 

For several former Terps, they have found that competitive outlet in the world of CrossFit.

Erika Copeland, neé Thiesen (‘10) was a women’s soccer player at Maryland from 2007-2010 where she was a standout defender and midfielder on two NCAA tournament teams.  

Once she graduated and her soccer career was officially over, she found herself at a crossroads. 

“I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do,” Copeland said. "I had never heard of CrossFit when I was in college but in 2013 I heard it was a great workout routine. Then I got a deal giving me some sessions so I finally could see if I liked to do it.”

CrossFit is a fitness regimen that incorporates multiple different exercise philosophies including but not limited to high-intensity interval training, powerlifting, and gymnastics, and not only did Copeland like it, but she thrived in it. 

As a whole, CrossFit is an activity that can be done individually but also as a group and it’s the latter that helped Copeland dive into it wholeheartedly. 

Missing her soccer family, Copeland was able to find a new team to dedicate herself to.

“What I really missed about soccer training is that I was always in a big group of people and friends,” Copeland said. “As soon as I started doing CrossFit and really competing I was drawn to the team competition.”

Started in 2000, CrossFit has exploded in popularity with over 15,000 gym partnerships across the country with different levels of intensity. 

For Copeland, she has found her new home and it’s her home gym and team, 12 Labours.

Named after the famous fable featuring the Greek demigod Hercules, 12 Labours is home to dozens of men and women from different ages, races, and religions that have all come together to compete under the same banner.

The familial atmosphere has been key to her success as is her history of grueling routines.

“As a collegiate athlete you train long before you ever get to college,” Copeland said. “It’s your identity and I mean that in a good way. When I found CrossFit it was like I was whole again.”

In late July, Copeland and her team competed at the 2021 CrossFit games and placed 31st overall out of over 1300 teams worldwide. 

While they did not win, they put up very respectable numbers and came away with their heads held high. 

“Wins and losses aren’t really the point of CrossFit,” Copeland said. “Teamwork and doing the best we can are what we strive for.”

Copeland, however, is not the only former Terp who has taken up the competitive CrossFit lifestyle.

Alyssa Stookey, neé Mealey (‘02) and Rachel Martinez (‘05) are both former Maryland gymnasts who are both not only competing in CrossFit but thriving in it. 

Martinez is one of the most decorated gymnasts in school history with her four years in College Park being littered with individual titles, top-three finishes, and a dozen All-EAGL honors in each event. 

She has parlayed her athletic prowess into becoming a formidable CrossFit athlete traveling the world and racking up more hardware. 

A staple on the uneven bars, balance beam, vault, floor, and all-around competition, the former Terp co-captain found her transition to the rigors of CrossFit a simple yet still challenging one.

Like Copeland, Martinez was looking for a way to channel her innate need to compete. After college, she had tried running and tennis but neither satiated her hunger.

After trying a few different gyms, Martinez found a home with the CrossFit New England team but she also wanted to train for individual competitions. 

Gymnastics has a team aspect but it can also be a lonely sport. In each event, the gymnast is out there by themselves with all eyes on them and that’s where Martinez is at her best.

Martinez wanted all the challenges that it could throw at her. 

“For as physical as CrossFit looks and is, a lot of it is mental,” Martinez said. “Competing at the CrossFit games and all the open competitions can be a lot but I think being at Maryland and being on a big stage before helped me a lot.”

Martinez has medaled and stood on the podiums at numerous CrossFit events over the past decade and has become a well-known figure in the community. 

Having spent time at Maryland under the bright lights of high-level gymnastics, Martinez is prepared for the grandest stages that CrossFit can provide but since having her child two years ago she is content just using it as an outlet.

“I still do open competitions sometimes but I don’t actively train for them like I used to,” Martinez said. “Now I just go to my gym five days a week and just do it for the fun of it and as a way to be myself.”

Alyssa Stookey is one of the greatest balance beam competitors in school history having been named to the All-EAGL balance beam team three times in her Maryland career.

Like Copeland and Martinez, she too has taken up the CrossFit way of life.

Stookey parlayed her experience as a top-flight gymnast who had notoriously impeccable balance to become a formidable CrossFit athlete that competes on the global stage.

Her journey to starting CrossFit wasn’t easy though as while her sister did it, there weren’t any gyms nearby that carried it.

Then one day, fate delivered her a golden opportunity.

“My sister came into town and I took her to a local restaurant where a waiter asked if we did CrossFit,” Stookey said of her twin Lisa Mealey Marquette, who she competed alongside at Maryland. “My sister said she did but I said no, and then he informed me that a new gym was opening on Kent Island so I was like ‘All right, time to bite this bullet’.”

That gym is called CrossFit Kent Island and is centered out of Stevensville, Maryland. The motto that they preach is that they build strength, endurance, and confidence in their athletes.

Known for her strong will and determination, Stookey was a good match for CrossFit as despite how hard she knew it would get, she knew she would persevere because of the skills she developed at Maryland. 

“Day-to-day training as a gymnast means you understand hard work,” Stookey said. “I learned a lot about hard work, commitment and dedication which definitely carries over into my CrossFit training.”

Like Copeland, Stookey competed in this year’s CrossFit games and finished 13th in the world in the 40-44 age bracket. 

Her showing is that much more impressive considering she was forced to train during the COVID-19 pandemic because she was not able to attend her gym.  

“My son has severe asthma so I didn’t want to be around other people and take that risk,” Stookey. “I didn’t have access to a lot of equipment as I would in my regular gym but that’s just another aspect of pressure that I learned to overcome.”

With over 500 student-athletes at the University of Maryland, many will find themselves in a state of culture shock once their playing careers are over. 

Going from working out, training, and practicing every day for years very quickly turns into countless hours of free time after graduation. 

Stookey has a Ph.D. in exercise physiology and understands more than most both the want and importance of staying in shape post-college.

She also wants student-athletes to know that just because their collegiate chapter has ended, another one can just be starting.

“Sometimes you need a break after college sports and that’s fine,” Stookey said. “It can take a while to find your next thing and that’s fine too. It’s just important to stay active, whatever that means for you specifically, and finding what you want to do.” 

The  following article ran in the Spring 2021 issue of ONE MARYLAND Magazine, which features stories of strength and perseverance, of determination and spirit. These stories define our athletics program, and this magazine allows us to share these stories with you. To receive future issues of the magazine when they debut, please join the Terrapin Club. We hope you enjoy.

Alumni Spotlight: Gretchen Kittelberger

GymTerp contributes to the world of functional fitness

Former Terp gymnast Gretchen Kittelberger ‘08 is at the forefront of the movement to propel functional fitness into the Olympic games through her work at the International Functional Fitness Federation.

If you have heard of CrossFit, then you basically know the concept of functional fitness. It is a series of different exercises in competition form that pits athletes against one another. Kittelberger heard about CrossFit from a former teammate while she was attending the University of Virginia School of Law, earning her Juris Doctor. She wanted to find a way to be active again and, as an added bonus, many aspects of CrossFit were applicable to gymnastics.

An Academic All-American at Maryland, Kittelberger started participating in CrossFit following graduation in Jan. 2009 and competed from 2011 to 2014. She greatly enjoyed her time doing CrossFit and wanted to help bring the sport to the world’s greatest stage – the Olympics. According to Kittelberger, functional fitness fits the criteria for the Olympics.

“It is a youth-oriented sport and gender-equal,” said Kittelberger. “We have the opportunities for men and women competing, comparable broadcast and air time for both the men’s and the women’s competition, and we’ve always given equal prize money to the men and the women. Not to mention, watching functional fitness is fun and exciting to watch for viewers.”

One of the first obstacles Kittelberger had to overcome was forming a non-profit international federation.

“CrossFit is a private, for-profit company, so they can’t be a sports federation for the purposes of getting the sport in the Olympics,” said Kittelberger.

So, Kittelberger formed the International Functional Fitness Federation in August 2016 and publicized it in June 2017.

Quickly, the federation became popular internationally.

“Within four months of our announcement, we had eight countries join and then we held our first World Championships and we have kind of grown from there,” said Kittelberger.

Functional fitness is especially popular in Europe and it’s seeing some recent growth in South America. It’s relatively new in Asia and the Middle East, but nevertheless is growing.

Sadly, both championships and live events were canceled last year due to the coronavirus pandemic, however, many events were offered virtually. Participants worked out at their own home or gym, videotaped their workouts, and then sent them to the federation. The federation would then calculate the participants’ scores and post them online. To add a little something extra, the federation broadcast a livestream of the event, so family and friends of participants could watch worldwide. Looking to the future, Kittelberger and her organization are hoping to host the masters world championships and world championships in the fall, as usual. 

The International Functional Fitness Federation is still in the beginning process of its bid to be in the Olympics. As more and more countries form their own national federations and join this international federation, the faster the process goes for functional fitness to get into the Olympics and the quicker Kittelberger’s dream will become a reality. - Megan Curtis, One Maryland Magazine Contributor