Article by Danielle Wheelan.

Baylee Rayl, senior advertising and public relations major, isn’t your typical student athlete. She may have a scholarship to play women’s golf at Drury, but she spends her nights at CrossFit 417, training with her other teammates for intense fitness competitions.

“A lot of people know that I do CrossFit, but not to the extent that I do it,” said Rayl.

Baylee Rayl, student and CrossFit competitor. Submitted by Rayl.

This summer, Rayl traveled to Madison, Wis. to compete in the CrossFit Games. To put it in perspective, she compared it to playing another sport and competing in the Olympics.

In order to compete at the global competition, she spent the majority of her summer in the gym, training upwards to six hours a day. Her team, comprised of three men and three women, underwent a series of qualifiers, eventually placing second at the Central regional competition located in Nashville, Tenn.

The team completed the CrossFit Games, finishing 12^th in the entire world. Even with a few setbacks, Rayl is proud of her team’s accomplishments and hopes to qualify for the next CrossFit Games competition.

“Our region is extremely difficult, so I’m proud of all we have accomplished,” said Rayl.  “We have more training to do and we could have done better, but I think 12^th place is still pretty respectable.”

Rayl says that she first took interest in CrossFit after suffering from a severe concussion in high school that left her unable to partake in any physical activity.

“It was really tough not being able to play sports. No girl wants to gain the ‘freshman 15,’ but I did in high school because I had to sit on the sidelines. It became my goal to become as fit as possible.”

If not at the gym, you can typically find Rayl in Shewmaker.

For her senior seminar project, Rayl combined her interests in advertising and fitness to host a CrossFit competition to boost gym moral and raise funds for victims of Hurricane Harvey. She planned the event from start to finish, working with the gym’s owners to make the event as successful as possible.

She designed the flyers, updated the gym’s social media accounts, found sponsors to donate items for the silent auction, sent out emails and helped to host the competition.

Rayl believes the event exceeded everyone’s expectations.

“We had 16 teams compete and over 50 people were present at the event – some choosing to just support the teams and good cause,” said Rayl.

Rayl’s goal was to fundraise $1,000 for Hurricane Harvey victims and it was surpassed by an extra $30. The check was then given to Convoy of Hope to put that money into action.

If not busy enough, Rayl interns at Campaignium focusing on SEO and web development. She works under Drury alumni and aids them in HTML, CSS coding, keyword searches and meta descriptions.

Rayl believes that her time at Drury has helped immensely in her internship.

“If it wasn’t for the skills I was taught at Drury, especially in Web Communication, I wouldn’t have a clue of what I am supposed to do,” she said.

She even believes this may be a future career path.

“I love Campaignium. It is small, modern and I have been able to learn a lot from the business. But I also interested in sports marketing or making a career in CrossFit. I know people who do it as a living,” said Rayl.

No matter what career she ends up choosing, Rayl is confident that she will succeed because of her time management skills, passion and dedication she has learned trying to juggle it all.