Every year there are a select few Triton athletes who choose to further their athletic and academic careers at the collegiate level. Making this decision is a hard one, so how do these Vikings make this decision?

Senior Vikings Grace McGonagle, Riley Daniels, and Maggie Summit are playing softball, gymnastics, and swimming, respectively, next year for their chosen colleges.

McGonagle is furthering her softball and academic career at Suffolk University at the Division III level. McGonagle will go from a Viking to a Ram in the fall. She has also played soccer during her high school years, playing at the varsity level.

“[I chose Softball over Soccer because] softball has always been a nice escape for me. I like how in softball you have a huge individual role but in the end it comes down to the team atmosphere.”

“I wanted to go to school more for my academics, not so much softball,” said McGonagle when questioned about why she chose the DIII level, “Softball is an addition to Suffolk that I am happy to be a part of. In the end I only have four more years left of softball.”

Daniels has committed to furthering her gymnastics career at Lindenwood University at the Division II level.

“I chose to do gymnastics in DII because of the atmosphere. The team reached out to me and the way they treated their athletes looked like a good fit for me.” Daniels has been doing gymnastics since she was very young and has been doing so at Ace Gymnastics.

“For the most part it’s easier for gymnaststs to start reaching out to schools earlier than later, but I was receiving and communicating with coaches around my sophomore year.”

Contrary to McGonagle and Daniels, Summit has decided to further her swimming career at the University of Minnesota which is a Division I Big 10 school. Summit has been swimming all her life and was scouted by multiple schools.

“I thought it would be a great opportunity to continue both my academic and athletic career. For me it was more about the schools than the division.”

The NCAA has very strict rules about recruitment when it comes to highschoolers and when they can start reaching out to athletes.

“NCAA rules allow schools to start emailing you September of your Junior year,” said Summit, “so many reached out then but I didn’t email any back until around February.”

McGonagle had a different “scouting” process. “For DIII it is more the other way around. During summer tournaments we would play in showcases all summer long. This is when we would email all the college coaches we were interested in with location and game times. Most of the time the coaches attend them anyways, but if you email them then chances are they will find time to attend.”

For both Summit and McGonagle choosing a school was a tough decision, and came with a lot of variables.

“I was set on attending Roger Williams for softball,” said McGonagle, “until recently when I did my overnight at Suffolk and realized that the team and location were a better fit for me.”

Daniels chose Lindenwood for the same reasons, “I could see myself living at the school for the next 4 years.”

No matter whether choosing a D1 or D3 school, the decision is hard and there are a lot of factors that weigh into it. However, despite the stressful process, it is a fun one to go through. McGonagle, Daniels, and Summit are excited to be Rams, Lions, and Golden Gophers next year.