EMMA — Next to her parents Jeff and Brenda Carpenter, the most relieved person in Skyler Carpenter’s Shipshewana neighborhood might be the local mail carrier.

Her parents are happy after the Westview High School senior signed a national letter of intent Wednesday afternoon, accepting a full-ride scholarship to run track at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Tuition at the Southeastern Conference school is $62,000 per year.

“Financially it would not be possible for me to go to Vanderbilt without the full-ride,” the younger Carpenter said.

The mail carrier’s relief will come when the barrage of college information stops coming for the all-around athlete.

“I was getting information from about 220 schools,” she said.

Carpenter is a four-time Indiana state champion. As a sophomore, she won the 300-meter hurdles (43.31) before finishing first in the 100 hurdles (14.36), 300 hurdles (42.03) and long jump (18-3 1/2) a year ago.

She has also won an AAU national hurdle championship.

“Obviously this is a great day for Westview track,” Warrior coach Jon Cook said. “Vanderbilt is a great school that has a good track program in the SEC. Vanderbilt is a great academic school and that was one of the main things she was looking at.”

The other two schools among the final three selections were Indiana and Stanford.

“I wanted Skyler to go with the school that was best for her,” Brenda Carpenter said. But Stanford (Palo Alto, California) is so far away. I can drive to Tennessee.

“I love the coach at Vanderbilt. He was one of the many coaches that came to our house. I cooked dinner for a number of them, because options of eating out are limited in the Topeka area. I’m pleased with her decision. Nashville is a nice place.”

Stanford’s offer was for a 70 percent scholarship.

“We told Skyler it was up to her, but we asked her why would she want to pay to go to school when others we offering her full-rides,” Mrs. Carpenter said. “It doesn’t matter where she goes as much as it does what she does with her education.”

Among the numerous schools offering full-rides were Harvard and Notre Dame.

“I kept thinking if she went to Notre Dame I was still going to be doing her laundry,” mom quipped.

In the end, the final decision came down to the academic side of the equation and Skyler’s planned course of study. Her grade-point average at Westview is over 4.0 on a 4.0 scale.

“I want to study premed with the goal of becoming a neonatologist,” she said. “There are two or three hospitals on the Vanderbilt campus.”

A neonatologist is a doctor who specializes in premature babies.

“All three of my mom’s children were premature,” Skyler said. “Over the summer I met Dr. White (Memorial Hospital in South Bend) who delivered me. I enjoyed talking to him and that helped me make the career decision.”

Skyler has two brothers — Huntington and Buchanan.

Skyler is not the first Westview athlete to compete in track and field at an NCAA DI school. Among the others are Matt Jones (Baylor), Nate Jones (Indiana), Andy Begley and Nicole Williams (Arkansas).

“Skyler has a lot of natural talent and she is a hard worker,” Cook said. “She is the type of athlete that can compete right away at the DI level, but it is obviously a big step up.”

Carpenter knows it will be competitive at Vanderbilt.

“Vanderbilt just signed four other hurdlers. That’s okay because I want someone to train and compete with. I’m not going to shy away from competition,” she said. “From what the coach has told me he thinks I can compete right away. Comparing my times from last year to the SEC meet I would have placed fourth or fifth in the hurdles.”

Carpenter has goals for her upcoming senior season.

“The plan is compete at the same level while still pushing myself,” she said. “I would love to win three state championships again, but if that isn’t possible I would like to win the 300 hurdles again to make it three in a row.

“One of the things I need to work on to run in college is my time in the air over the hurdles. The time needs to be shorter. Improving my technique will help.”

Carpenter has also been a standout in soccer and basketball at Westview. Last fall in soccer, she scored 39 goals and assisted on five others as the Warriors (14-4-2) won a Class A sectional title at Garrett.

She recently scored the 1,000th point of her basketball career joining Bev Miller, Jamie Gallmeyer and Tiffany Fisher as the only girls in Westview history to do so.

“Cross training helps me,” Carpenter said. “Soccer helps with my endurance and basketball with quickness.”

Being a three-sport standout and keep her grades up hasn’t been easy.

“Time management is the key,” Carpenter said. “There are also sacrifices. There have been times I couldn’t hang out with my friends or watch my favorite television show because there was homework to do.”