Warren's Nixon takes her active approach to Lawrence

As Sammi Jo Nixon discovered her future path, her mother hopped on her own road.

A road of recovery.

"Seeing all the people that were involved in the process of her diagnosis and her treatment, I realized I wanted to be able to help cancer patients," Nixon said. "So I want to go into oncology and do cancer research."

Say hello to Sammi Jo Nixon, who's not your Average (Sammi) Jo. The Warren senior, who last week helped her basketball team advance to the championship game of its own Blue Devil Classic, recently signed a letter of intent to continue her education and athletic career at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wis., where the Vikings compete at the Division III level.

After her mother, Susan, was diagnosed with breast cancer in the spring of 2013, Nixon decided she wanted to study chemistry in college, with plans on being a pharmacist. A cross country runner and basketball player at Warren since she was a freshman, she discovered a great and fun opportunity at Lawrence.

"The deciding factor for Lawrence was that I would be able to do cancer research as a freshman there," Nixon said. "It was just a perfect fit."

Between academic and athletics, Nixon will get little rest at Lawrence, as she'll compete cross country, basketball and track. Mind you, she has never run track in high school.

"(At Lawrence), if you run cross country, you have to run track," Nixon said. "Lawrence provided the opportunity to do all the sports that I love and not have to give one up, and they're in trimesters, so it makes it a little bit easier to balance."

Nixon, a varsity basketball player since her sophomore year, averaged nearly 10 points in five games in helping Warren go 4-1 in its own tournament. She plans to run track this spring. That means the Blue Devils will be adding an accomplished distance runner to a team that already boasts Miami-bound sprinter Brittny Ellis.

"I started cross country my freshman year to get in shape for basketball," Nixon said. "Then I just fell in love with it."

Success probably didn't hurt. As a sophomore, Nixon was a member of Warren's cross country team that earned a state berth. Last fall, she helped Warren qualify for the sectional meet.

"At that point (freshman year), I said, 'I can't give this up. I love it so much,' " Nixon said.

Perhaps she acquired her "no-quit" attitude from her mother. Susan Nixon had both radiation and chemotherapy, Sammi Jo said. Susan kept fighting. She's still fighting.

And she's winning her fight.

"She's on the road of remission," Nixon said of her mother. "She had surgery to get all the cancer out. She's all done now, and her hair's growing back. She's doing really well."

So is Susan's daughter.

jaguilar@dailyherald.com

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