Reagan Briggs is a redshirt sophomore who is a hammer thrower for the Eastern Michigan University track and field team.
She comes to EMU from Bloomdale, Ohio, which is 90 minutes away from Ypsilanti.
Briggs, 20, attended Elmwood High School in her home city of Bloomdale, where she played basketball and volleyball in addition to running track and field and cross country.
Briggs has an older brother, Jordan, who attended the same high school she did and also ran track.
She admitted track and field was and has always been her main focus despite playing other sports in high school.
“I mainly did the other [three] sports to stay in shape, but I did enjoy playing basketball the most,” Briggs said.
Before choosing to run track at EMU, she was recruited to go to the University of Akron.
“I wanted to go to Akron, but assistant coach [Jerel] Langley sold me on coming here because he is so knowledgeable about track and field and made me feel comfortable about coming to EMU,” Briggs said.
Briggs’ current major is in communications, while her minor is in marketing.
If there was one class she could pick as her favorite, she would choose contemporary selling with professor Sue Young.
“I really enjoyed it, and that is how I got more involved into marketing,” Briggs said. “Also, Sue is very fun and outgoing. I like how her class is very structured and I like it when professors stick to a strict schedule because it makes everything flow much more smoother.”
It was not until this current semester that Briggs decided to make marketing her minor.
She is not sure yet what she will do for sure once she graduates from EMU but did tell me about being involved with Athletes In Action, which is a Christian sports organization on campus.
“I am thinking of taking that experience and becoming involved in sports ministry, but nothing is final,” Briggs said. “I still have a couple of years to decide for sure what path I want to go down.”
Because her ethnicity is three-fourths Caucasian and a quarter African, she often has been mistaken for being of other races.
“People think that I am Hispanic, Arabic, Italian and more often Spanish because I am always around my teammate Lydia [Gomez-Diaz], and she has the thicker Spanish accent, and I always tell them jokingly that I am not Spanish,” she said.
When it comes to her favorite food, she enjoys sushi.
“I fell in love with sushi because I tried it this semester with some friends and thought that it was great,” Briggs said. “As I have gotten older, I have become more open to trying different foods and less picky with my food choices.”
Her favorite place to travel is San Diego, Calif.
“I have been to California twice,” she said. “The first time was for my uncle’s wedding and the second time was for a mission trip involving Athletes In Action last spring break, and it was a blast.”
When it comes to clothes shopping, Briggs’ favorite place to shop is H&M.
“I like the different kinds of styles they have there and the new products they have coming out all of the time,” Briggs said.
When it comes to her favorite genre of music, she admits that it changes on a weekly basis.
“I go through stages of what kind of music I like, but as of now I am into a lot of acoustic music like Gavin DeGraw,” she said.
The one person Briggs looks up to the most is her uncle.
“My uncle has been so inspirational because he got his degree in public relations and went to Australia for graduate school,” Briggs said. “He is so driven and refused to let anything get in the way of his dreams, and it motivates me to become the best person possible.”
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