St. Thomas unveils new "Fuel Station" to keep student athletes fully nourished
ST. PAUL, Minn. — The University of St. Thomas is taking steps to ensure its student athletes are ready to compete at the highest level.
Tommies get in shape in the weight room, but staying in shape takes more than weights. The Fuel Station just opened up a few weeks ago, and it's a proven hit.
Grace Forsberg is a third-year swimmer, who fuels up with free food before and after practice.
"I use it almost every single day," Forsberg said. "Our practices are so strenuous, and you do burn a lot of calories during practices, and so replacing those and having that as your recovery."
The station's high-protein and high-carb snacks are critical to that recovery. Lizzy Narigon is one of two sports dieticians who runs the Fuel Station and educates athletes.
"Food can make an athlete average or make an average athlete great," Narigon said. "Over time, they perfect that fueling for themselves, because everyone is different, they will see those differences on game day, on the field, on competition day. So it's incredibly important."
Alice and Nick Halvorson helped create and fund the Fuel Station. The two graduated together in 2001. Nick was a Tommie football player, and he hopes to help those who are already at St. Thomas, but also attract the next generation of D1 athletes. For Alice, it's a more personal mission.
"I developed an eating disorder in high school which carried into college as well," she said.
She's hoping to use that hurtful time to help others.
"I just became really passionate about how can I be healthy, how can I be the healthiest I can be, how can I help other people not succumb to what I suffered from," she said.