Megan Mehilos Dorneker
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- Year:
- 2004
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- Hometown:
- Addison, Ill.
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- Team:
- Handball
Megan Mehilos grew up in Addison, Illinois, and began playing handball at age 14. She won several titles as a junior player, including World Championships in 4-wall singles and doubles.
Mehilos entered Lake Forest College in the fall of 2000 and was the second of three Mehilos siblings to play handball at the College from 1998-2008. She was immediately the women’s team’s top player and won many singles and doubles tournaments throughout her Forester career. Most notable among her victories were four consecutive United States Handball Association Collegiate National Championships in both Open Singles and Open Doubles, making her the first player – male or female – to claim both national titles in all four years of eligibility. In addition, she accomplished the feat with a different doubles partner each year. Mehilos led the Foresters to four national women’s team championships and to three combined team titles and she was named the squad’s Most Valuable Player after each of her four seasons. Her exploits as a handball player earned Mehilos a spot in Sports Illustrated’s “Faces in the Crowd” feature in March of 2004.
Successful in the classroom as well, Mehilos earned the Freshman Scholar-Athlete Award, which recognizes the member of the class with the highest grade point average that year. She was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa and graduated from the College in 2004 with a double-major in mathematics and education. Mehilos went on to a career as a high school math teacher and earned a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction from Northern Illinois University.
Mehilos’ handball success continued after college. At the time of her induction, she had a long streak of Illinois Handball Association Women’s Open Singles and Doubles championships and had claimed eight National Open 3-Wall titles as well as an Open 4-Wall championship. She had been a highly-ranked professional player since graduating from Lake Forest and had achieved a #1 world ranking.