MINNEAPOLIS - The term student-athlete is often thrown around the world of collegiate athletics loosely, but certainly not in this case. Golden Gopher track senior Ashley Nord is more than a rock-solid example of a student-athlete. She takes the student part to the extreme.

Nord carries an amazing academic resume as she completes her fifth year on the Minnesota campus. The Rapid City native is a triple major and all three disciplines are heavy hitters. Try astrophysics, physics and global studies on for size. Nord, whose average class load numbered 17 or 18 credits a semester, has a lofty grade point average to show for it. On a 4.0 scale, it's 3.9-something, Nord said.

This scholar is a talented pole vaulter for the Golden Gopher women's track and field team as well. Nord and 22 of her teammates competed this weekend at the NCAA Midwest Region Championships in Lincoln, Neb., for the coveted invitations in the NCAA Championships.

To say that Nord is at the top of her game is an understatement. She is obviously a top-notch student and having cleared a career-best height of 13-feet earlier this spring, Nord is also enjoying some of her finest moments athletically. She owns three Big Ten championship rings from team titles over the last three seasons and a trip to NCAA Championships in her final collegiate season would only be icing on the cake.

Like so many vaulters, Nord found this track event after first competing as a gymnast in her youth. She picked up the pole vault as a junior in high school, and now she is coming to the end of a journey.

"For my last one or two meets, I want to go out have a blast," Nord said. "I came into college with the mindset (about pole vaulting) that I had to do really well, that I needed to progress. Along the way I learned that it is really just a game and go out there and have fun. I'll step back and think what a great opportunity this is; this is a great time."

Over the five years with the Maroon and Gold, Nord has also seen the Gopher pole vaulters build an impressive notch into the woodwork of a Minnesota program that has become a Big Ten power and nationally a top-20 contender. Pole vault teammates Alicia Rue, Andrea Smith and Samantha Sonnenberg joined Nord at the Midwest Region meet this weekend.

"When I redshirted my freshman year we had only one other vaulter. Then through the years we have developed an awesome group of vaulters," Nord said. "I think it's only going to continue with a great coach in Caroline White. Both she and her husband (Steve) live and breathe pole vault so that has been great to have around."

Nord's studies, coming from the physics realm especially, also can fit into her pole vaulting world.

"Pole vault is such a mental sport. When I'm not getting something to work, I will hear from coach that this or that is the science behind it and this is why it has to work," Nord said.

Nord admits that she has never traveled to a track meet without a backpack of books in tow.

With her academic and athletic pursuits, Nord is not the average college student by any means. Don't ask Nord how Grey's Anatomy ended for the season, she won't know.

"I don't think I've even turned on a TV since I stepped on campus," Nord said with a laugh.

Still, Nord can share time between her studies and pole vaulting.

"It's been beneficial to my academics as well to say that I'm going to take this block of time and only focus on pole vault even if I have a test the next morning. When I get on the runway, it's my goal to think of one or maybe two things that I want to do for that vault and solely concentrate on those. It's so important in pole vaulting not to allow any negative thoughts to enter your mind."

Nord picked astrophysics as a major first, giving the reasoning that she was interested in the topic and loved the science and the stars.

"But, I also didn't want to get too far away from the liberal arts education and really wanted to stay in the political science realm, so I added the global studies major," Nord said. "Then I decided to add the physics major to give myself more flexibility as to what I go into as a career."

Nord completed her astrophysics degree this spring. Following an internship over the summer at UCLA working with medical imaging, she will graduate with both her global studies and physics majors in December.

From there, grad school awaits not surprisingly. At this point, Nord hopes to find a career in the bio-physics field.

"Right now it's a lot of medical technology and cancer treatment, looking at how the body reacts to different medications on a small level," Nord said. "The physics of cells basically."

Heady stuff in any book. Leave it to a pole vaulter to raise the bar so high.