Maggie Triplett on Balancing Art and Athletics
The Meridian native is not only a freshman middle-distance runner for MC’s track and field team but also a vocal performance major in the Department of Music.
Maggie Triplett is busier than most. When she’s not running, she can be found in an Aven practice room or a voice lesson. The Meridian native is not only a freshman middle-distance runner for MC’s track and field team but also a vocal performance major in the Department of Music.
She first became interested in running after she quit ballet lessons as a child. Her elementary school introduced her to the sport in P.E., and she quickly realized she had a knack for it. She joined the cross country team in sixth grade and competed first throughout middle school and then at Lamar High School. As a middle-distance runner, she competes in the 800-meter and 1600-meter races.
Between training and singing, Triplett’s schedule is packed. Her friends often wonder how she balances both running for the track and field team and being involved in events for the music department. “I had to sit down at the beginning of each semester and look at every single date for our meets… and then look at all the events for music,” she said. “Music comes first, but I kind of line up things according to that.” Most of her workouts start at 5:00 or 5:30 a.m. and are immediately followed by sessions in the weight room. With the weather growing warmer, most of the team’s daily workouts have transitioned to the early morning hours. “I'm usually running from practice to my 8 a.m.s every morning,” Triplett joked.
Although her two worlds are very different, they benefit one another. “I think running helps me a lot with singing, especially with breath support,” she commented. The pre-race jitters and performance nerves she used to feel have diminished as she has gotten older. “I think because the training here is so hard. You've put all of the work in, so you're just ready to race… the same with music,” she said. “The environment here is just so good and everybody loves each other. Even if you mess up at something, it's okay. We're all still in the learning process.”
Her peers often see her dedication and talents on display. “Maggie is just an extremely hardworking girl,” said Hannah Diaz, a freshman worship leadership major from Covington, LA. The two met in a music theory class during their first semester at MC. “I had never gotten to hear her sing until one of our first solo hours. Before she started, [my friend] Alyson turned to me and said, ‘Just wait. She’s got the voice of an angel.’ When she started singing, jaws dropped.”
Zack Templeton, a freshman music education major from Flowood, met Triplett during orientation. They bonded quickly when they realized they both had emphases in voice. “I made fun of her a little bit though because she said she listened to opera music while she ran,” he said.
Her interest in music started after she watched her parents make sets for the theater in her hometown and began auditioning for community theater. Some of her past credits include Les Misérables, Music Man, and Into the Woods. She also performed the role of Miss Pinkerton in Lyric Stage’s production of The Old Maid and the Thief at MC in the Fall of 2022.
She appreciates the communities that her sport and major both give her, even if they are often separate from one another. “I feel like that was kind of an adjustment coming here to MC,” she said. “Sometimes that's good because I like having different people, but it is kind of weird because none of them know each other and… that’s interesting.”