If you talk to Muhlenberg senior track and field athlete Cora Wallace long enough, you will find that she is a big fan of outer space.

Whether it is galaxies, planets, stars, constellations or black holes, all of it interests her greatly.

"I always thought outer space was interesting. Certain things blew my mind when you learned some of the more intricate details. It seems like really unknown territory," Wallace said.

In sports, Wallace has become an expert in entering unknown territory. Over her four years at Muhlenberg, she has taken a winding path across four different sports to close out her career by finishing sixth in the heptathlon at the Centennial Conference Championships last weekend.

Click on the video above to see Wallace perform in all seven heptathlon events.

Recruited to Muhlenberg as a soccer goalie, Wallace chose to major in physics, a field where many of the questions that interested her about outer space could be answered. She learned early on that such a rigorous course of study would not mesh with the training schedule needed to be on the soccer team, at least she thought.

Ever the competitor, a college life without sports did not last long for Wallace, who got the itch to return to some sort of playing field not soon after she decided to discontinue her soccer career. A friend told her to come out for rugby in the spring of her freshman year, and she took to it.

"Rugby was awesome. I was just looking for another team to get on, and I am really into physical contact in sports, so rugby was the perfect fit. It was probably the most fun I've had," Wallace said.

After a year of rugby, Wallace, who swam and played soccer and basketball in high school, wanted a new challenge. The light bulb went off one day while she was spending time with a friend who is an accomplished member of the track and field team.

"I was in Tyler Bauer's room and he was studying film of people throwing javelin and analyzing his own form and I thought 'oh my god, what have I given up? Why did I stop?' It was hard for me to exist without some sort of athletic competition to throw myself into," Wallace said. "I saw how the program worked and I saw how hard Tyler worked and I knew I wanted to be a part of it."

"I remember showing her a lot of throwing videos, just to introduce her to what I do (and what I thought that she would be good at) and I think that there was a moment that I saw it all click for her. I could tell that she knew she would be able to throw on the track team competitively," said Bauer, a senior two-time All-American. "I realized that she had an incredible competitive edge, no matter what we were doing."

Wallace's sophomore and junior years, she threw shot put and discus, landing in the top five on Muhlenberg's all-time performance lists in both. Her course work in physics actually paired perfectly with being a thrower.

"Coach Andy Fahringer is so good at explaining how to throw. He says when he comes here he can talk to us on a higher level because Muhlenberg puts education at the forefront. He would explain how to get the proper pull on the disc and how keeping your arm extended gets you the proper torque, the longer your radius is. That was always a really cool nerd moment of connection because I understood exactly what he was talking about from my classes," Wallace said.

The summer entering her senior year, Wallace suffered a broken middle finger on her right hand. Unable to train in the shot put for her senior campaign, she returned to Muhlenberg and made another change athletically, linking up with her fourth sport in four years as a distance runner on the cross country team.  If there was any one thing that prepared Wallace for the grind of the heptathlon in the spring, it was running cross country in the fall.

"The most difficult thing was cross country. I loved throwing and I love the aspect of the heptathlon that you are so tired but you have to keep going, even though you're exhausted. All of that flowed from being in the middle of the 6K and just praying for some sweet mercy that I didn't have to finish the race, but knowing I did have to finish the race."

Wallace ran a personal-best time of 27:00.9 at the Centennial Conference Championships, a time she improved by nine seconds from the first meet she ran in.
With the outdoor track season approaching, Wallace had a decision to make.  After running the 800 during indoor season, and with talented throwers above her on the performance list primed to make a run at school records and score big points at the CC Championships, Wallace wanted to find a different way to help her team any way she could.

There was a void in the heptathlon, and Wallace took that spot and ran with it.

"As the spring approached, I think that the coaches saw that she would be able to score in the heptathlon, which included more events that she had never done than ones that she had. The fact that she was able to learn to high jump, long jump, and hurdle in just a few months is incredibly impressive, and really unheard of. She beat competitors from other schools that have been doing the heptathlon much longer, because she trains harder. Whether it was the lifting when she was throwing, or the long distance runs this last year, she always is the person who is pushing herself the hardest," Bauer said.

Becoming a jack-of-all-trades in seven different events (100m hurdles, high jump, shot put, 200m, long jump, javelin, 800m) didn't come without growing pains, though.

"I don't like to do things in a mediocre fashion. I want to do everything well, and I had to get used to not doing things well for a little bit while I learned all these new events," Wallace said.

"The hurdles, high jump and javelin were completely new to me. If you're not hurdling correctly you are acutely aware that you aren't doing it correctly and you're running next to these people who are doing correctly and look like the most graceful people on the planet. The most frustrating thing is telling your body to do something and your body not responding."

Conferences were the first time Wallace had competed in the full seven events of the heptathlon and she finished sixth, nearly 400 points higher than the seventh-place finisher. Her throwing experience helped her to finish third in the shot put and javelin.

While she was very happy with her performance and proud to help add to the team's overall point total at the meet, it was hard for Wallace not to think about what could have been if she had some more experience in the heptathlon entering this season.

"There's definitely a bittersweetness to it. Coming in sixth and helping the team score points is a great way to go out, but the thought of lost potential is painful at times," Wallace said.

Now that graduation time has arrived, Wallace can look back on her long and winding journey through four sports during her time as a Mule.

"It's been a weird trajectory. It's easy to say that I should've started the heptathlon as a freshman but the other aspect of that is when, in my wildest dreams, would have I thought I'd be able to train in these facilities with the coaches I've had? These coaches are coaching someone who has never picked up a javelin or ran a 6K before in her life."