Pioneers
![Team huddle](http://magazine.grinnell.edu/sites/default/files/styles/300x200/public/20190907.athletics.vb_.0799.jpg?itok=5MWurNEl)
![Evelyn and Will Freeman standing next to the score board for the Darren W. Young track and field complex](http://magazine.grinnell.edu/sites/default/files/styles/300x200/public/20190724.Freeman.portrait.016_web.jpg?itok=3o_kR7Bb)
![6 students paired in laden canoes](http://magazine.grinnell.edu/sites/default/files/styles/300x200/public/buffalo.feature.jpg?itok=47jGnKkS)
![Agné Lukoseviciute ’21 throwing hammer](http://magazine.grinnell.edu/sites/default/files/styles/300x200/public/20190507.hammer.throw_.1%20WEB.jpg?itok=rRi_7RRz)
Agné Lukoseviciute ’21 beat her own school record for the hammer throw multiple times during the outdoor track season.
![Group during tennis court naming](http://magazine.grinnell.edu/sites/default/files/styles/300x200/public/20180831232640_1D3A3727%20WEB.jpg?itok=THU6IuLz)
Distinctive for a tradition of lifelong connections among alumni, Grinnell’s athletic teams instill an abiding sense of community that Ishan Bhadkamkar ’13 understood before he even enrolled.
![Grinnell water polo player with ball](http://magazine.grinnell.edu/sites/default/files/styles/300x200/public/20180421.waterpolo.008WEB.jpg?itok=JfcVplCx)
![Roger Sayre ’81 holds his race medals](http://magazine.grinnell.edu/sites/default/files/styles/300x200/public/20180721%20POR%20SAYRE09%20975x455.jpg?itok=UFfk-PSz)
![Madeleine Pesch ’16 standing on beach with bike](http://magazine.grinnell.edu/sites/default/files/styles/300x200/public/20180106.maddy_.portrait059%20WEB.jpg?itok=IwY7QXKi)
Madeleine Pesch ’16 likes to joke that she would never have found Grinnell if it weren’t for the “amazing pool” she first saw in a swimming-and-diving brochure.
![Student Athletes Leading Social Change (SALSC)](http://magazine.grinnell.edu/sites/default/files/styles/300x200/public/20171013.salsc_.donation073%20WEB.jpg?itok=ch_o-mUE)
Daria Guzzo ’19 plays center for the Grinnell women’s basketball team. She is among the one-third of Grinnell’s student body that participates in varsity athletics.
![Eric Ragan sets a volleyball on the left side of the net to two women on the other side](http://magazine.grinnell.edu/sites/default/files/styles/300x200/public/EricRaganweb.jpg?itok=OiAZWkat)
Eric Ragan ’12 first came to Grinnell in 2008 knowing little more than that he wanted to keep playing sports in college, and he wanted to do it in a “high academic” environment.
![Sarah Burnell Boston Marathon](http://magazine.grinnell.edu/sites/default/files/styles/300x200/public/Copy%20of%20643004_252415326_XLarge%20WEB.jpg?itok=dW_JpJ3y)
It’s pitch-dark in Columbus, Ohio, when the alarm breaks the wintery stillness at 5 a.m. Instead of hitting “snooze” and burrowing further under the duvet, Sarah Burnell ’14 laces up her running shoes and heads outdoors.