As the only College of Wooster athlete to be named to the All-North Coast Athletic Conference Decade Team in two sports of different scopes (one other cross country/distance track runner accomplished the feat), Annie Gillespie proves to be one of the most talented and versatile athletes to ever represent the Fighting Scots, and making her career all the more amazing, she overcame a serious knee injury in the process.
“You’d be hard pressed to find anyone now days who could accomplish what she was able to in two sports,” commented Wooster head women’s soccer coach David “Geordie” Brown.
Gillespie made an instant impact upon arrival to Wooster’s campus from Bay Village, Ohio. On a veteran women’s soccer squad, the freshman scored a team-high 12 goals – the fourth-most in a single-season at the time – playing a key role for the 1994 NCAC champions. Individually, she was picked for second-team all-conference status.
Quickly transitioning to the track, Gillespie was just as effective there. She ran the opening leg of the NCAC-champion indoor 4x400 meter relay (4:18.56), then established a dominant era in the outdoor 400-meter hurdles with her first (1:06.26) of three conference titles in that event.
While the Scots struggled a bit record-wise on the soccer pitch the next season, Gillespie led the team with 13 points, including a career-high five assists. Her sophomore year in track was highlighted by another win in the 400 hurdles at the NCAC Championships with a time (1:04.61) that qualified her for the NCAA Div. III national meet where she finished 18th (1:05.92).
Gillespie’s athletic career was sailing along at an all-time high her junior season, as she had netted 10 goals, assisted on four, and led Wooster to a second NCAC championship in three years as well as a school-record 18-game winning streak. Towards the end of that year, Gillespie’s fortunes, and the team’s, were altered dramatically when she went down with a “devastating” torn ACL.
With their 18-2 record, the Scots had earned a spot in the NCAA Div. III Championship field, and remarkably, after some rehabilitation work Gillespie was able to participate, wearing a brace. While Wooster lost the game, Gillespie was thrilled to have shared in that experience, “even a little bit,” with her teammates, and the knee injury was “a little easier to bear” when she learned shortly thereafter that she was selected as a third-team All-American.
After being forced to miss her junior track season due to continued recovery and rehab of the ACL, Gillespie came back and produced at a high level during the fall, despite a cumbersome brace. She repeated as first-team all-NCAC, marking her third all-conference recognition in soccer, after scoring once and tallying four assists.
That gave her final career numbers of 70 points on 27 goals and 16 assists, which ranked her as Wooster’s third all-time leading scorer at graduation (now tied for sixth in points and tied for fifth in goals).
Maybe the most impressive part of Gillespie’s comeback came spring of her senior year. She not only won two more conference championships – 400 hurdles (1:04.81) and 4x400 relay (4:02.22) – to bring her career all-NCAC accolades in track to 10, but qualified for the NCAA Div. III Championships again. There, she finished in 13th with a personal-best time of 1:04.04.
“To come back from that type of injury is an amazing accomplishment in itself,” said Dennis Rice, the Scots’ track & field coach. “She was very determined to get back to the top, in terms of performance, and she obviously did that.”
A biology major at Wooster, Gillespie earned honors on her Independent Study. She went on to complete a master’s degree in animal and veterinary science from the University of Massachusetts, then worked as a veterinary technician for five years. Her first career change followed, acquiring a teaching certificate and serving as an elementary school teacher for six years.
Now, Gillespie is in her third career, and most gratifying. Married to Wooster alum Ryan Campbell ’97, she is a stay-at-home mom in Charlestown, R.I., and “raising the next generation of Wooster student-athletes,” their two girls, Evelyn (4) and Finley (2).