Krystal Montgomery will never run to class at MIT—not because she doesn't have time, but because she's almost certainly already there. The MIT senior, who balances a dual major in Computer Science and Design with elite Division III track performance, has spent the last four years proving that the most meaningful pursuits aren't about choosing one passion over another, but learning to carry multiple ones at once.

Montgomery's running credentials are formidable. In April, she clocked a 2:10.67 in the 800 meters at the Friar Invitational in Providence, Rhode Island, the fastest Division III time in a field that included runners from all three NCAA divisions—a performance that ranked her eighth nationally. She bettered that mark just weeks later with a personal best of 2:09.51 at the FIRE Meet hosted by Williams College. But numbers alone don't capture her impact. Last year, Montgomery and her teammates won the NCAA Division III Outdoor National Championship in the 4x400m relay, a victory that crowned MIT's first-ever NCAA Division III Outdoor National Championship. Named New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference Women's Track Athlete of the Week twice, she has become the embodiment of excellence that extends beyond the oval.

Her path wasn't linear. After a standout freshman year that earned her a place at the NCAA Division III finals, a serious injury at the NCAA Division III Indoor Championships derailed her sophomore year. The combination of physical setback, demanding coursework, and internship interviews pushed Montgomery toward the edge of quitting entirely. "Sophomore year was super tough, academically," she recalls. "I was thinking that I would quit after my sophomore year and just focus on school. Then I started dropping times and thought that maybe I could improve if I just stuck it out."

What saved her was learning to prioritize intentionally. "I think that has kind of helped both my academic and athletic performances," Montgomery says of the mental toughness she developed. "My junior year was great. I just kept pushing myself and continued to drop my times. I kind of learned how to balance my life. I prioritized sleeping and eating and tried not to be too stressed about schoolwork so I could lock in on race day."

The same philosophy shaped her academic journey. A former president of her high school's Girls Who Code chapter, Montgomery knew early on that computer science would be her major. But it was her love of building and creating—what she describes as her "pretty crafty" nature—that led her toward design. In her first year, she enrolled in Paul Pettigrew's Design Studio class, where she discovered MIT's architecture workshops. "It was just crazy to have all these materials at my fingertips that I could build with," she recalls. "I learned how to laser cut; spray paint; powder coat; and cut metal, wood, and fabric."

That experience sparked something. Montgomery went on to take multiple courses with associate professor of the practice in architecture Marcelo Coelho, including his Interaction Intelligence course—twice. These classes became a bridge between her two worlds, blending physical prototyping and coding in ways that felt purposeful. "[Coelho's] classes have been a great combination of designing a physical object and learning how to code, which brought in my computer science background," she says.

As her MIT chapter closes, Montgomery is moving to Austin, Texas to work as a software developer at Apple, where she plans to continue competing in track as an unattached athlete. Her vision extends further still: she's already considering a potential transition to marathons down the line. That's the mark of someone who has learned the most valuable lesson MIT has to offer—not how to choose between competing ambitions, but how to run toward them all.