Melissa Hartley ’11
Down and Dirty
Hometown: Longmont, Colorado
When Melissa Hartley was 11, one of her neighbors who was into BMX racing, a type of off-road biking, told Melissa she’d never be able to do the sport. So she set out to prove him wrong. Melissa has placed as high as fourth in the United States and sixth in the world in her age class. “I love the competition,” she said. But sports aren’t her only interests. Among the “billion things” she said she loved to do in high school was working on the poetry publication. “That was an amazing experience. It was a brand-new horizon for me, and I got to step out of being the jock and try something new,” she said. Melissa plans to major in neuroscience and play field hockey at MHC.