Iowa’s Soccer Mom, Meike Ingles, Balances Competition with Motherhood

PHOTO: HAWKEYESPORTS.COM Meike Ingles holds her daughter, Xiah, who has spent her early life around the Hawkeye soccer team.

Meike Ingles (24BS) could have easily given up on her academic and athletic dreams.

After being named Iowa’s offensive player of the year as a freshman in 2020, Ingles had high hopes for the future. Yet, over the next three seasons, Ingles started just six games and experienced a quad injury during practice, an illness that required hospitalization, the death of her father, and the birth of her daughter.

“There were a lot of moments where I was scared,” says Ingles, whose daughter, Xiah, was born in November 2022. “But everyone was so supportive. They took me in with open arms. My dad passed away nine months before Xiah was born, so she was really my saving grace.”

PHOTO: HAWKEYESPORTS.COM Meike Ingles was named Iowa's Comeback Athlete of the Year at the Golden Herky Awards this past May.

The Road Back to the Pitch

Approximately 1% of female college student-athletes experience pregnancy, according to the NCAA. For Ingles, she was back to running and performing workouts within two months of giving birth. Yet, she found out quickly that it would take time before she was back to peak performance.

“I struggled with my strength training,” says Ingles. “I’d look at other teammates in the weight room, and they were lifting with bigger plates. I knew I used to be able to do that, so it was frustrating. It took two years to get back to where I was before having Xiah.”

While working to get back, she was also adjusting to motherhood.

“It took time to get comfortable bringing Xiah around my coaches and teammates, but she’s now another girl on the team,” says Ingles. “She brings so much light to the room. She definitely is part of the team now.”

A Sweet Season

Last season, Ingles was back to full strength and started 18 games for the Hawkeyes—netting seven goals, including a game winner against Georgetown to send Iowa to the program’s first Sweet 16. She was named the team’s co-offensive player of the year and received a University of Iowa Athletics’ Golden Herky award as Comeback Athlete of the Year at Iowa.

Now, as she enters her final year as a Hawkeye, the graduate student continues to redefine what it means to persevere.

“Everything I have gone through has built me into the person I am today,” says Ingles, who wants to continue her playing career with the National Women’s Soccer League or the USL Super League. “I’ve certainly grown as a woman, but I’ve also changed as a soccer player. I now get worried when someone goes in for a tackle—I wasn’t like that before. I’m certainly the mom on the team now.”