Catching Up with the 'Cats - Becky and Erich Fiedler
4/6/2020 3:41:00 PM | General, Men's Track & Field, Women's Track & Field
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By: UNH Wildcats
By Allen Lessels UNH Insider
Engineers Becky Haley, '08, and Erich Fiedler, '06 were teammates on the University of New Hampshire track & field teams. Becky earned her degree in civil engineering and Erich in hydrology at UNH and they both lived in Stoke Hall. They were married in Becky's hometown of Dover in 2011 and now live in Seattle with their daughter, Emma, 3 and-a-half, and son Alex, 1 and-a-half, and both work for the city of Seattle. This is our latest installment of Catching Up with the 'Cats.
What do your jobs entail?
Becky: I'm a senior transportation engineer with the Seattle Department of Transportation. What I do is not typical engineering work. I support research for traffic-related claims and lawsuits. If someone files a claim with the city related to the design or operation of a roadway, I investigate the history of the location, how it was designed, and how it operates. I work with our risk management group and also work with city attorneys.
Erich: I work for Seattle Public Utilities. I'm an environmental engineer who does program management for pump station and force main rehabilitation work. Part of my role is to startup and integrate new and updated facilities into our system.
What's your best athletics memory from UNH?
Becky: For me it was winning the New England Indoor championship in the 1000 meters at Boston University in my junior year. It was my first big individual championship win. I remember I led from the start and took it out pretty fast. The final turn came and my legs were starting to buckle. I almost fell, but I managed to cross the line. I also have some great memories running the 4x800m relay. Running with my teammates in that race, sharing the glory and the pain, is pretty special.
Erich: I started at Lehigh University and transferred to UNH in the middle of my sophomore year. I had an old injury from my Lehigh days that ended up causing problems for a number of years after so I didn't race as much as I would have liked at UNH. One of my fun memories was when I was pretty new to UNH and we were at an outdoor meet up in Maine, the first of the season, and it was one of those really cold early spring days. The steeplechase pit was frozen and we had to warm up on the indoor track and quickly run outside for our races. It was a crazy experience.
What about your best memories away from athletics?
Becky: Meeting Erich! Erich was an RA in Stoke Hall when I was a freshman. Our relationship developed more from living in the same dorm. We had track in common, but he was an RA and we started hanging out. We took some classes together, did homework together, and would go for easy recovery runs on Sundays. One year he surprised me for my birthday and took me kayaking in Great Bay. It was one of those rare warm, sunny days in April and we didn't have a meet that weekend.
Erich: I'd do my rounds and she'd be studying and every once in a while we'd hang out. That was fun. Really late at night. When you're doing athletics as well as a pretty tough program, you have a lot to do.
Becky: I feel like I spent a lot of time either running or in class.
What do you miss most about UNH?
Becky: We still talk about the dining halls. We loved UNH dining and miss it. Stillings was my favorite, my go-to place. We'd eat with our teammates and friends. I'm a Stillings girl.
Erich: Holiday feasts. Wings. It's been so long and we still talk about the food. It was nice to walk in and they'd have all this food prepared for us. UNH does a great job with its dining halls. I went to Stillings when I was at Stoke but when Holloway opened that was my go-to place.
What was the toughest part of combining a challenging major with competing in athletics?
Becky: Finding time to balance both athletics and academics is definitely demanding, especially since running is year-round. Personally, I used every chance I could during the day to get homework done between classes and practices. My backpack was huge, carrying all my books and notebooks, trying to get my work done whenever I had a spare moment. There were some late nights. I was a little more organized than Erich.
Something Coach (Rob) Hoppler said always stuck with me. He said there are three aspects of college: academics, athletics and social life. And you can do two of those well. I chose academics and athletics. I didn't have much of a social life.
Erich: Since I was hurt so much athletics wasn't as consuming for me. Turns out I had a serious injury before I got to UNH and I couldn't run a lot. I'm similar to Becky. I didn't stay up too late and I didn't party that much. Time management wasn't that big of a challenge, but I did have to spend a lot of time in the ice bath and getting physio work from the trainers.
How did you end up on the West coast?
Becky: Erich graduated in 2006 and went to UMass Amherst for grad school and when he finished grad school in 2008 I was graduating from UNH. We moved to Raleigh, N.C. together and I went to grad school at NC State and he got a job at a consulting firm. When I finished my masters in 2010, I got a job at a consulting firm in North Carolina. A few years later we were looking for a change. At that point we were not ready to move back to New England to the cold and snow. A good friend had moved to Seattle and it sounded like a great place for us. We both happened to get jobs working for the City of Seattle and came out here in the fall of 2013.
Erich: The moving around is tied into doing the school thing, I think. It was hard for us to do a study abroad and travel while we competed. Going to North Carolina was kind of like the college experience, getting to see a little of the South. Moving to Seattle was a way to experience another part of the country in a working capacity. It's a way to do some traveling. It's great out here in the winter. We don't miss the cold New Hampshire winters. And it doesn't rain here as much as people think.
Do you run these days?
Erich: I run a bit. It helps me balance out all the time we spend at work in an office. I finally figured out I had a chronic Achilles problem and had a couple of surgeries to fix it before we came out here. I've done a few marathons now and a bunch of half marathons, 5Ks and track races. Last year (2019) I ran the Boston Marathon. It was a great experience to race Boston with all our family there watching.
Becky: I don't do much running these days, unless you count running around after the kids! Finding time for extracurriculars now is a little tough. I did the Seattle Marathon in 2014. A marathon was on my bucket list. Erich trained me - he's a great coach. I think it will be fun after a while to lace them back up and go on family runs. Both our kids love to go to the track and run around. I think I'm going to have to start running again to keep up with the two of them!
Erich: The kids love to run and have me chase after them. Emma is getting pretty fast, and Alex isn't too far behind. Who knows, they might be future Wildcats. That would be awesome.
What are some of your best academic memories at UNH?
Becky: Jo Daniel was one of my favorite professors. Professor Daniel was in the civil engineering department. She got me into transportation engineering. It kind of solidified for me what I wanted to do. One memory that jumps out is the time I had a surveying lab right after a big snowstorm. It was February, we were outside for hours standing in the snow taking measurements as the wind whipped across the fields. I could barely hold my pencil my fingers were so cold. So maybe not "best" memory but a memorable moment for sure!
Erich: I had some interesting classes with Jennifer Jacobs. I really enjoyed her classes. I started in engineering at Lehigh and didn't really like it. I was in hydrology here and the professors here steered me back toward environmental engineering. I wasn't super serious and super focused and the UNH professors helped focus and direct me, which was good. They showed me what I needed to do to be successful and helped me understand what I wanted to do on my career path.
How'd you end up at UNH?
Becky: I grew up right next door in Dover and never thought I'd go to UNH. My whole family went to UNH: Both my parents, my brother, all my aunts and uncles. I thought I'd be going somewhere else. But it felt so comfortable with its athletic teams and academics. It just felt right. UNH allowed me to pursue success in school and on the track without feeling overwhelmed and I got support from both sides, coaches and professors. Coach Hop was very understanding of the demands of being an engineering major and professors were understanding of the demands of being an athlete. I think it set me up well to be successful in both and it gave me confidence going into grad school and then the workplace. On the personal side, I found my future husband, though I didn't know it at the time. So I am forever grateful for UNH!
How much do you follow UNH teams now? Elle Purrier with Emma at the 2017 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships
Becky: We went to the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field championships in Eugene a couple of times to cheer on UNH. We were there in 2017 and cheered on Elle Purrier. We met her and she held Emma and gave her a big kiss. We're proud to wear our UNH gear and wave the blue and white flag. It's great to see the cross country and track teams have more and more success. We're so proud to be alums.
