UND plays at Kraft Memorial Field earlier this season. Photo by Nicholas Nelson/The Dakota Student.

Developing a routine has been the key to success for Reid Jungling.

A senior chemical engineering major from Mandan, N.D. and pitcher on the UND baseball team, Jungling has found his balance with academics and academics as he nears graduation this spring.

“It’s going great,” Jungling said of finishing up his final semester of school. “I’ve gotten through the fifth year of my program, and this year I had about six classes to take. Now I’m finishing up on my last senior design project.”

Playing baseball in the Western Athletic Conference means he has been traveling long distances for several road series matchups throughout the year. This, of course, results in a lot of players missing classes during the week.

“We typically leave either Wednesday afternoon or early Thursday morning,” Jungling said. “We have games on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, so we usually get back to campus on Monday afternoon.”

Being on the road for long periods of time has made it difficult for Jungling to attend all of his engineering lectures.

Jungling has been able to view engineering lectures on the road during his time at UND, which has been essential to his learning along the way during extensive travel hours with the team.

“With chemical engineering, whether you are taking the class online or on campus, all of the lectures are put online for you to view.” Jungling said.

Before UND, Jungling played ball his freshman year at the University of Mary before he found himself transferring to North Dakota, where he was able to focus on a more specific academic field.

This is where Jungling, who was selected to the WAC All-Academic team last year, discovered his enjoyment for chemical engineering.

“With engineering, there are broad options to choose from.” Jungling said. “I like chemistry, and I like engineering. So for me, it was a good mix of the two.”

A team of 30 students, who work together balancing school and sports, emanates a sense of community while traveling on the road.

“There are a couple of other engineers on the team,” Jungling said. “Last year, me and another guy on the team were taking a lot of the same classes together, but the sense of the team comes even if you’re not taking the same classes.”

Though baseball takes up a large portion of his time, Jungling has seen a high level of dedication toward academics from his teammates.

“People help tutor each other,” he said. “A lot of the guys help the younger guys out, and even some of the young guys help the older guys on stuff too.”

After UND, Jungling will be working as a foundation engineer at Hess, a North Dakota based energy company.

But before that, he still knows he and his team have some time to play ball before graduating.

“Coach always talks about how when we finish up that last series on the road in New Mexico, that we don’t want to be on our way back to North Dakota after that game,” Jungling said. “We want to be on that bus going to Arizona for the WAC Championship.”

Ben Novak is a staff writer for The Dakota Student. He can be reached at [email protected].