Lanni Marchant's mother was a figure skater and two of her sisters were well decorated skaters, so at the age of four she decided to follow in their footsteps.
To stay in shape for competitions, Lanni began to run. However, by grade 10 she realized that it was more enjoyable for her than skating and she was pretty good at it. So at the age of 14 she hung up her skates and laced up her trainers.
Her decision to come to Chattanooga had as much to do with the level of competition on the women's team as it did the teammates from her home country, Canada.
“There were a lot of Canadian men on the team,” Lanni recalls. “So that was a big draw. I also wanted to go to a school where there would be girls on the team to push me and with the ladies that were there at the time, I knew I was going to have a lot of work to run with them.”
Her hard work would eventually payoff.
Lanni was named the 2007 Southern Conference Female Athlete of the Year after an impressive senior campaign.
She was named SoCon Cross Country Runner of the Year, claiming the league individual title and leading the Mocs to a one-point victory for the team championship. She went on to earn her second all-region honors and a spot in the NCAA Championships.
In the winter, she won the 5,000 meter indoor title and in outdoor track won both the 5,000 and 10,000 meter titles. Her winning time of 35:06.53 in the 10K smashed a 17-year-old SoCon record and earned her a spot in the NCAA Championships.
Lanni was a 14-time all-conference performer with eighth league championships that included the 3000 meter Steeplechase title as a freshman.
“Making it to the NCAA is definitely at the top of the list for me,” Lanni said. “Winning my first conference title in the steeple as a freshman and closing out my time at UTC winning the cross country championship on our home course are two other big moments that meant a lot to me as a varsity athlete.
“It was awesome to line up representing Chattanooga at national events and championships.”
She was an academic standout at UTC. She was a constant member of the Dean's List and Athletics Director's Honor Roll and recognized as an All-Academic by the Southern Conference. She was the Dayle May Award winner, an honor given to the male and female senior student-athlete with the highest GPA.
She was a three-time All-Academic with the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Academic and graduated Magna Cum Laude from UTC with a degree in Economics and a minor in Pre-Law.
As a student-athlete, Lanni received the A.C. “Scrappy” Moore Award given to the Student-Athlete who best personifies the Athletics Department's vision through academics, athletics and community service.
After graduation, she moved on to Law School and practices with a firm in Chattanooga while training for marathons. She notes the difference in racing in college and racing internationally.
“Obviously now it is on a much larger scale,” she explained. “When I line up to race there are plenty of women in the field who have NCAA titles and years of experience racing at this level. It's a lot of fun and I'm enjoying learning the ropes.
“Now when I compete, I am wearing my nation's uniform. It's amazing but comes with a much heftier workload and pressure. Learning how to train and compete as a pro is very similar to the transition I had to make from high school runner to collegiate athlete.”
In the summer of 2012 Lanni just missed out on her chance to represent her home country in the Summer Olympics, despite finishing the Rotterdam Marathon inside the Olympic qualifying standards, because she did not meet the Canada standards for qualification.
She did have the opportunity to represent Canada at the IAAF World Championships in Moscow later that same year, but it would be her fifth career marathon that led to her most notable accomplishment.
At the Toronto Waterfront Marathon, Lanni ran a time of 2:27:59, surpassing the Canadian women's marathon record by 37 seconds.
“As a student-athlete I was able to develop a strong work ethic at UTC,” she said. “I did not have a lot of teammates in my classes and since I was injured a lot, I did much of my studying and training solo. I think that helped prepare me to balance law school and running on an international level.”
