April 28, 2009

Story by Emily Steele, South Carolina Media Relations

South Carolina track and field senior Curt McGill is known to have had great success on the track but what people may not know is that he has also accomplished great things off the track. McGill, a five-time scorer at the SEC Championship, was recently accepted to Duke University School of Medicine and is headed to Durham after he graduates this spring.

McGill stepped on South Carolina’s campus four years ago as a highly decorated high school athlete. While attending Spartanburg High School, the senior track star excelled in the classroom as well. His achievements on and off the field caught the interest of both Clemson and Tennessee but McGill decided on South Carolina instead. Now a senior, he is excited to graduate, but like most college seniors he is not sure if he is ready for what is next.

“It’s [college] been good but I can’t believe I’ve been here for four years,” says McGill. “It’s been a very exciting four years but I’m ready to graduate and move on. I say that now but I’m sure that it is going to hit me in the summer that it’s over, there is no more track and now it is time to get ready for the real world.”

With indoor season over and outdoor season coming to a close, McGill is having a good senior year. In the heptathlon he received his highest place ever in indoors with a fourth place finish, and although he tweaked his hamstring a couple of weeks ago at the Shamrock Invitational in Conway, S.C., he has been rehabbing and is getting back to where he was before the injury. But that doesn’t stop this Gamecock from wanting to leave his mark as an all-star athlete.

“I would love to get top two at conference and hopefully my score will be good enough to make it to nationals. And hopefully, if I do well at nationals, I’ll get All-American (honors),” says McGill.

While things are going well on the track, the exercise science major received news around mid-February that he got accepted into the Doctor of Physical Therapy program at nationally recognized Duke University School of Medicine.

“I applied and got accepted into Emory,” says McGill. “I applied to MUSC [Medical University of South Carolina] and I got waitlisted there. But I didn’t get into Chapel Hill, (Duke’s) rival and I’m still waiting on USC’s Medical School, but I’ve pretty much decided on Duke.”

The senior Gamecock says that it is an honor being accepted especially since they only accepted 45 people out of over 500 applicants. With thousands of applicants applying every year to one of the top six programs in the nation ranked by U.S. News and World Report, Duke only accepted 100 for last year’s class entering in September 2008. And Duke’s doctor of physical therapy program, which McGill was accepted into, was ranked 13th in the nation in 2008 by U.S. News and World Report as well.

McGill will attend Duke Med next fall with hope of remaining true to what he knows best.

“I’d like to get into rehab with athletes,” says McGill. “Especially with me running track and playing football when I was younger, I got interested in helping different athletes rehab and get back to where they were before they were injured. So I’d like to stay and explore more of the sports side of physical therapy.”

Although McGill has a couple more weeks as a Gamecock, he will not leave without any memories running for South Carolina’s track team.

“My first meet at Virginia Tech (was the most memorable),” remembers McGill. “It was my first time running with the school at a college level. I also saw Terrence Trammell there and he ran the hurdles too. He wasn’t in my heat but I was like `Wow, I’m here running the same event as an Olympian.’ So that had to be my most memorable event or experience at South Carolina.”