Drawn to Run With Grace Barber

When one digs deep and goes beyond the surface, often times interesting and surprising things are revealed. The same is true for distance runner Grace Barber who is as eclectic as a Renaissance woman in an antique shop. When you look at her results and contributions to the team, it is surprising that she is a freshman. She has been one of the few newcomers to run in nearly every race during this cross country season, four of out five, and has been the only freshman scorer in major meets for the Sooners, including the Big 12 Championship. If one digs a little deeper, you will notice that Barber, a geology major, is following in her father's footsteps. Off the course, she is leaving no stone unturned as she prepares for a career in discovering. Speaking of discovery, if one goes a little deeper into this Tulsa native's life, you can also find a talented artist. Barber took a moment away from her rocks, runs, and renderings to share her story … or at least the story she has lived thus far.

Grace Barber takes a warm-up run with cross country teammates at the Big 12 Championships in Stillwater, Okla.

ON GROWING UP IN A FAMILY OF RUNNERS:

"I have five sisters and my oldest three have already gone through college and graduated. My oldest sister ran at Iowa, my second oldest sister ran at SMU (Southern Methodist), and my third oldest sister ran at KU (Kansas). My two younger sisters are 11 and 7 and they run, too. My whole family runs. My dad played football and ran track at Augustana College (Rock Island, Ill.). Now he coaches a team called Jenks America Track Club. [Running] was just a way that my whole family could be together for one part of the day, so we'd all just go to Jenks-America. My mom runs with the little kids. Growing up was so fun because it was basically always a party. It was nice. It's still nice to be able to call my older sisters and get advice because they've already been through trying to be an athlete and get through college."

The Barbers: (From left) Grace, Mike (dad), Rachel, Julia (mom), Anna, Ryann, Paetyn (neice-being held), Atalie, Kate (being held), and Ryan Price (brother-in-law).

ON HER LOVE OF GEOLOGY:

"My dad is a geologist. We were taken to geology, rock and mineral shows with my dad as we were growing up and so we've been exposed to it. I love dealing with math and science. The [area of geology] I want to go into is exploration geology where you hunt for oil and gas. That's what my dad does. I've gone to the office with him on weekends when I was growing up. Seeing what he does is interesting. I can visualize geology better than other sciences and I've also always had a rock collection. My sisters have all pretty much done something in [that field]. My older sister is a mechanical engineer in Seattle. My second oldest actually lives in Oklahoma City and she works in the Devon Tower as a geophysicist. That's one of the reasons that I wanted to come to OU. My third oldest sister lives in Iowa and she is a geologist. It's pretty cool -- we all really relate to each other really well."

Thanks to mom (Julia), Grace loves art and said that pencil and pen sketches are her strength.

ON HER ARTISTIC TALENT:

"My mom is the artist of the family. We were never really taught art, but my mom always did crafts with us when we were growing up. There was always some sort of a get together, like a craft session or baking [session] or something. We did little painting sessions growing up and developed a love for art. I like to do a lot of pencil and pen drawings. My pencil drawings are my strength. One unique piece of art I created was a three-dimensional animal out of poster board. We had to figure out the dimensions on our own by eyeballing it. I did a giraffe and had to cut out all of these different shapes. That was probably one of the hardest things I've ever done, but it's one of the coolest things I've ever done."

The Barber's "Hall of Fame" wall and dad's (Mike) arrowhead collection.

ON THE UNIQUE DECOR OF HER HOME:

"We do have a lot of paintings. We have a lot of my mom's paintings up. Dad collects arrowheads so we have arrowhead displays that are hanging on the wall. We have rock shelves that hold all of my dad's really nice gemstones. We have one hallway and it's just an accumulation of national medals from all my sisters and my [achievements]. It's like our own hall of fame. It's great to walk down there and see all of our hard work."

ON COMING TO OU:

"First off, I wanted to stay close to home -- I like being close to my family. When I came on my visit, I really loved how all the women were being so encouraging to each other because I just thought that was a really great approach for a team to have. I also liked Coach (Jason) Dunn's coaching style. I thought he was really a great coach and I saw how everyone on his team made improvements. I also wanted to go into geology and OU has a really good geology program. I was just like 'OU's my place.' It's really been a good transition from high school running to college running because Coach Dunn has made sure it is a nice transition for us. I've definitely made a lot of improvements. It's just nice to be on an encouraging team. The first race I got to go to I was just honored to be able to run there. I was just like "wow this is really awesome." Honestly, I just go out there and do the very best I can. It's great that I'm scoring for the team. For me, it's just that I get to be out there running and contributing to our team, representing OU as a freshman is a really big honor. I love to run and, during each race, I think 'God already knows what's going to happen on this day, He knew it before I was born so why should I be worried?' All of my preparation in practice as led up to this moment so I just go out there and run.'"

THE SISTERHOOD (OLDEST TO YOUNGEST):

Atalie (33) - Ran at Iowa… Mechanical engineer (also was a math minor at Iowa)… On Iowa's Top-10 list in the 600-, 800-, and 1,000-meter events … Second team All-Big 10 in the distance medley relay.

Rachel (31)- Ran at SMU … Geophysicist at Devon Energy … Holds degrees in geophysics, art, mechanical engineering and has a master's from OU in geophysics … Member of 2004 Western Athletic Conference Championship cross country team that also won the South Central Region and qualified for nationals … 2005 second team All-WAC in distance medley relay.

Anna (26) - Ran at Kansas … Geologist (also holds a degree in geology).

Grace (18)

Ryann (11) - Runner.

Kate (7) - Runner.

THE EXTRAS:

On Netflix: One Tree Hill, Parks and Recreation, and Psyche (Also loves cooking shows)

On iPod: Coldplay, Phoneix, and loves to listen to the radio for variety

Fun fact: Knows how to ride a RipStik

For more information on OU cross country, check out SoonerSports.com.

ON GROWING UP IN A FAMILY OF RUNNERS:

ON HER LOVE OF GEOLOGY:

ON HER ARTISTIC TALENT:

ON THE UNIQUE DECOR OF HER HOME:

ON COMING TO OU:

THE SISTERHOOD (OLDEST TO YOUNGEST):

THE EXTRAS:

Players Mentioned

Grace Barber

Grace Barber

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