From playing in the sand pits at the track while her older siblings ran to winning Missouri Valley Conference titles, Grace Beattie has always been surrounded by running. Beattie, who grew up as one of the youngest in a family of seven, didn't start running until the fifth grade, but was inspired to do so by her family, all of whom ran at the Division I level.
Beattie's parents, Dave and Debbie, met while running at Bowling Green State University and went on to have five kids who all found their own success with running. The oldest, Elise, ran at New Hampshire, then Kayla ran at Arizona, Maura at Northern Illinois and twins Luke and Grace ran at Utah State and Illinois State. Even with five kids running at five different universities Dave and Debbie didn't miss many meets.
"The support of our parents is one of the coolest parts about all of us being Division 1 athletes," Beattie said.
Being the youngest benefited Grace and Luke because when their oldest sister was running in college, they were still too young to stay home for the weekend and got to tag along for the meets too. Even when there were three Beattie kids running in college at once, Dave and Debbie found a way to be there for all of them.
"My mom and dad would either split and go to each kid's races or they would do it together and just make it a massive day," Beattie said. "Sometimes they would fly there and back the same day to then get to another meet which was really cool. My sophomore year my dad watched the Missouri Valley Conference, the Mid-American Conference and the Mountain West Conference all in the same weekend."
It was that support from both of her parents and her four siblings that helped Beattie go from a walk-on student-athlete to a scholarship athlete in just one year.
"My parents never treated me any different than my siblings who had multiple recruiting visits and large scholarship offers," Beattie said. "They encouraged me to do it because there wouldn't be any expectations and I could surprise myself."
Now in her fifth year with the Redbirds, she has qualified for the NCAA West Prelims twice, won two Missouri Valley Conference titles (3,000m steeplechase & 5,000m), been named the MVC Female Track Athlete of the Week four times and is on the Illinois State Top-10 list seven different times. Beyond all of that success one of her favorite moments is still the first time that she and her twin brother Luke got to race at the same meet in college.
"We both got to go to California, and it was something that we looked forward to for over a year," Beattie said. "We were able to meet each other's teammates and cheer each other on. It just 
felt so cool that mom and dad were there watching their two Division 1 athletes at the same meet but for different teams."
This wouldn't be the first time that sibling duo would compete at the same meet. The Beattie twins both qualified for the NCAA West Prelims in 2018 and 2019, Grace in the 3,000m steeplechase and Luke in the 10,000m.
"No kids in the family had ever qualified for first rounds and my brother and I were the only siblings who weren't high school state champions and were underdogs going into college, so both competing at that meet together felt great," Beattie said.
While all of her siblings have expired their NCAA eligibility, Grace has one cross country season and one outdoor track & field season left to add to her already impressive resume and there's no doubt that her family will be there to support her through it all.
For all the latest news on Redbird track & field and cross country, follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
GoRedbirds.com and the Illinois State Redbirds App:Â Your sources for Illinois State tickets, Weisbecker
Scholarship Fund gifts, multimedia, Redbird merchandise, photos and more.
