Contact: Taiah Gallisath, Sports Information Graduate Assistant, 630-637-5302
May 26, 2022 - After moving 400 miles from his home state of West Virginia his freshman year to attend a small university just outside Chicago, North Central College hurdler Erik Musgrave looked for a bigger challenge in his academics and athletics. Musgrave found himself transferring just 11 miles down the road and has since excelled in both areas and taking advantage of all North Central has to offer.
Despite playing soccer, baseball, football, and even a couple of seasons of wrestling throughout his childhood, Musgrave picked up track and field in the third grade and never wavered from the sport. “Running has always kind of been there.”
His older brother Nick, ran cross country which initially sparked an interest in Musgrave, running cross country through high school but keeping track and field as the main priority. Musgrave looks to Nick as a natural role model, “Growing up I always saw him do things first, he was the one that would set the standard and I would always try to do it better and faster than him.”
The three-and-a-half-year age gap between the brothers helped their relationship growing up as it wasn’t close enough to clash but allowed them to pave their own paths under the well-known Musgrave name in West Virginia. “All around our family is pretty close, we are pretty scattered,” said Musgrave. “Nick is still in West Virginia, my parents have since moved and they're now in Minnesota. We try to get together as much as we can.”
Family hasn’t been the only support system for Musgrave, his elementary school teacher, Matt McCullough, had a big role in Musgrave’s life helping him find his way, “I had some troubles when I was younger and he kind of showed me that I was capable and gave me the right environment to thrive.” The two have since kept in contact through the years.
Musgrave, a self-motivated competitor from a young age, spoke of his favorite high school track memory being his qualification for the high school New Balance national championship. “That was a big moment, being a big meet and I made it all by myself. I had to enter myself and I ran pretty well so that was a big accomplishment.”
Musgrave continued that success when he was a part of the 4x400 meter relay that qualified for the 2020 NCAA Division III Indoor National Championship with the eighth fastest time in program history. Unfortunately, the indoor championships were canceled due to the CoVid-19 pandemic, but that misfortune allowed Musgrave to return for two more years of track and field as he pursued his Master of Business Administration.
With a new sense of appreciation, Musgrave entered his sixth year of competition with the goal to first win the conference championship as a team before having another shot at the national championship. “Conference is always our number one team goal, that's where we can get the most amount of guys to compete. Nationals is great, I'm very fortunate to have that experience but that true team atmosphere is at conference.”
North Central clinched their fourth-straight outdoor College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin Championship earlier this season, totaling 42 titles in the program’s history. Individually, Musgrave placed second in the 400-meter hurdles by just one-hundredth of a second (53.24) and later ran on the fifth-place 4x400 meter relay to earn All-CCIW honors in both events.
Musgrave owns eight All-CCIW accolades, in addition to a CCIW Indoor Championship title in the 4x400 meter relay alongside teammates Michael Stanley, Maceo Findlay, and Gavin Cernek. The relay also earned All-America honors in 2020 for their qualification to the national championship. Musgrave traveled as an alternate for the 2021 national qualifying 4x100 meter relay and has since earned his first individual bid to the 2022 outdoor championships in the 400-meter hurdles with the 17th-fastest time in the nation.
Since returning for his fifth and sixth years, Musgrave has taken a bigger role on the team, finding himself as more of a leader of the young squad. “A part of coming back was continuing that tradition. When I came in it seemed like it was all national titles. It felt like everyone I trained with were All-Americans, and they all had a ring. It almost seemed like a given but now that I'm older I’ve realized how hard it actually is, how hard those guys worked. It makes it that much more impressive for so many accolades they had and now I’m trying to help teach that to the younger guys.”
“I would say I'm a little bit more level-headed, a little calmer,” said Musgrave. “When I first came in everything had to be perfect. If I had a certain warm-up I did before my race or I had to do so many run-throughs before the hurdles, I had to do the exact same thing in the same order or I felt like everything was going to fall apart. I'm more comfortable, I used to be very antisocial before a race, I couldn't talk to anyone but now I like to talk to everyone, have some fun, get to know my opponents, and check on my teammates.”
Musgrave has carried that calm and collective mindset into his academics as well. “For undergrad, I watched everyone around me stress a lot. I always knew I wanted to do business but I didn't know exactly what style. I kind of liked marketing so I picked that and would decide if I liked it or not. As I got more into it I wasn't as interested but I learned more about myself and it helped me go into the workforce with a better idea of what I wanted to do. My MBA is a continuation of that.”
During his undergraduate studies, Musgrave was involved with the American Marketing Association (AMA) and also started the Round Net or SpikeBall club on campus due to a chance encounter with a North Central alum. Musgrave was working for Boy Scouts as a bike guide at BMX events in West Virginia when he saw the SpikeBall tent across the way and introduced himself as a student at a small school in Illinois who plays SpikeBall all the time on campus. The man working the tent happened to be the Chief Operating Officer of SpikeBall and North Central alum, P. Scott Palmer ‘08.
Musgrave built a network with Palmer, helping out at the SpikeBall national championship tournament in 2017, and eventually landed an internship with SpikeBall Inc. working in their wholesale department. “They were great, I learned a lot of things. It's a phenomenal company, with phenomenal people, and all of that was because of North Central.”
Musgrave currently works at Trek Bicycle Corporation in Naperville, specializing in sales and events while showing his talents in email marketing as well. Musgrave’s ultimate goal is to move to Chicago and take on a sales and logistics role in the city.
When he’s not studying, working, or running you can find Musgrave hanging out with family and his girlfriend, Samantha. Musgrave has also found an interest in flipping antiques, purchasing from thrift stores or online platforms, cleaning them up, and reselling them.
North Central sent two athletes to compete at the NCAA National Championships this weekend in Geneva, Ohio. Musgrave will compete in the preliminaries Thursday, May 26 at 6:25 p.m. while Jamauri Spivery will compete in prelims Friday, May 27 at 3:45 p.m. with finals for both set for Saturday. Live video coverage and event-by-event results will be available at ncaa.com.
Credits:
Steve Woltmann