Meurer, a Danville graduate who was a Governor’s Scholar, balanced softball and show horse jumping along with four jobs and a grueling academic workload. She ranked sixth out of 114 students at Danville, accumulating a weighted grade-point average of 4.522.
“Up until this year, it hasn’t been hard (to balance),” she said. “I always managed my AP (advanced placement) classes fine. But this year was hard, I overdid it this year with six AP classes. I might have been OK with the AP classes, but with all the other stuff it was hard.”
The other stuff includes her four jobs as an exercise rider, working at the Centre College bookstore, working the scoreboard and announcing games at Millennium Park, and baby-sitting.
Not to mention being president of the Boyle County 4-H Horse Club, the Spanish Club, Danville’s environmental club Roots and Shoots, serving as the rally captain for the Wilderness Trace Pony Club Senior Quiz team, and having several volunteer activities in the community.
“It was all I could handle this year,” said Meurer, who has numerous academic awards on her resume as well. “I wanted to do a few more things, but there are a lot of contests with 4-H, so I just stuck to those.”
What was most difficult for Meurer was saying no when all of her responsibilities overlapped.
“Who do you say no to? I didn’t do everything, but I did the best I could,” she said. “And people were great. But I didn’t get to volunteer as much.
“But I managed it. I got all A’s this year. It got a little hairy at times, but I chose my classes carefully at the beginning of the year.”
Evans was also a Governor’s Scholar, and had a 4.1 GPA, balancing three sports with several extracurricular activities. This year, she took four advanced placement classes, as well as physics, pre-calculus and Spanish 3 and 4.
She was also in the Beta Club, the Change of Heart Club, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, the Y-Club (Kentucky United Nations Assembly), and was also in Spanish Club until the school did not sponsor the club this past year.
Evans is also working the STARS Summer Camp for kids, works for Boyle County Parks and Recreation and baby-sits.
Learning how to make time and be successful in all those areas wasn’t easy, she said.
“It took a little while, especially since I was doing little things everywhere,” Evans said. “It’s just knowing how long I need to study, and allotting time in between practice or if I need to study on the bus or in between games, or knowing I might stay up late.
“As long as I know what I need to do, I’m fine.”
As exceptional as they are academically, the two were just as strong in the sports arena.
Evans was the most accomplished track and field athlete ever at Boyle. Since transferring from Madison Central as a sophomore, she won five state titles and was runner-up in two events. She also helped Boyle reach the state quarterfinals in soccer two straight seasons, and even swam for the first time this season.
“Sports never got in the way of grades, it just made me focus more on them because of all the planning,” Evans said. “I had to know what to and how long I had to do it.”
Meurer came back from a broken leg and ankle to earn All-Area honors in softball and help Danville get to the regional tournament. She also competes in show jumping with her quarterhorse, Pop Tart.
“Sometimes I didn’t get to study as much as I wanted. But coach (Jerry) Perry was so great about it, and was so understanding,” she said. “Some nights Becki (Rose) and I didn’t stay for the JV game because we had to study for AP or a midterm. Coach Perry was always asking if I needed to go or how I was handling everything.
“He was really instrumental in it, and was so understanding in helping us get through it.”
They are taking different paths in college.
