SANDRENE HAMILTON
Special to The Leader
Stephanie Wojnowski, one of the captains of Women’s Cross Country at SUNY Fredonia, won the chancellor’s award for excellence. Wojnowski said that receiving the award was a great way for her to end her academic career at Fredonia.
Wojnowski is a senior with a double major in Communication Disorders and Sciences & French. She said that track is a lot of work and time.
“It’s probably 25 hours of my week, practice and being at a meet all Saturday,” said Wojnowski.
Sometimes, it’s hard for her to have a meet every weekend. She has to time manage well and make sure that she gets all her work done during the week.
“Just making sure that I’m organized. I’ve always been busy, so, kind of having that schedule helps me keep my grades up and stay productive,” Wojnowski said.
Hannah Kurbs, Wojnowski’s teammate, is a senior who double majors in biology and psychology. When asked how she thinks Wojnowski balances school and track, Kurbs sees Wojnowski as always calm and collected.
“She’s always had a crazy load from like freshman year until now. She’s so on top of it. She’s so responsible,” Kurbs said.
Ethan Francis, a senior communications video production and political justice double major, thinks Wojnowski is selfless and a great leader.
“You can pinpoint like ten things she does a week that are for the better of other people rather than herself,” said Francis.
Wojnowski has been running since the 7th grade and really liked the sport in high school. She thought that it would be fun to continue track and to be a little more competitive in college. She wanted to see how well she could do. When Wojnowski was looking at colleges, she wanted to go where there was a good program for speech pathology. She also wanted to be able to run.
“I love getting to compete, being with my friends and having an outlet outside of school. I know we’re here to take classes and eventually get a job, but it’s nice to have that other side of making connections and having leadership opportunities,“ said Wojnowski.
Emily Maguire is a senior music education major and Wojnowski’s co-captain.
Maguire said that Wojnowski always gets along well with people and has a warm personality.
“She has a great relationship with the team as a whole. That isn’t always easy to do as a captain, but she has a way of being a great leader as well as a great friend, which I think is a really special trait,” said Maguire.
Kurbs said that Wojnowski always knows what to say, how to handle things, has a good head on her shoulders and is very well-tempered with decision making. Kurbs said since the start of track meetings, she and Wojnowski have been close.
“We’ve lived together for the past four years and our relationship has grown closer,” Kurbs said.
Wojnowski, for this semester overall, said that she would love to get her grades up and to make SUNYAC (State University of New York Athletic Conference) Championships. Making the SUNYAC Championships meet would be great for her to end her running career on a high note.
Maguire noted that over the last four years, Wojnowski has never let school stresses affect her attitude at home or her performance on the track, and vice versa.
“It can be so hard to stay focused on one task at a time when you have so many things going on in your life, but Steph is always fully invested in the task at hand at any given moment, which is something I really admire about her,” said Maguire
Maguire would describe Wojnowski as independent, determined and faithful. She said that Wojnowski commits so much time and energy to the things that are important to her such as school, running, her friends and family.
“Even when she was in France for an entire semester, Steph never missed a beat of what was going on back here in Fredonia, because it was important to her to still be involved in what was going on with her teammates,” said Maguire.
Wojnowski’s best memory at Fredonia was freshman year.
“I had a really good race and I placed fifth at SUNYACs. And I studied abroad for a semester in France. That was a really great experience,” said Wojnowski
Maguire knows that not everybody who does running enjoys it, but Wojnowski has never doubted her love for the sport, and that’s something Maguire admires.
“When it comes to balancing school and track, Steph does it just about as good as one can. She’s obviously a stellar student, on top of being a team captain and a good athlete,” said Maguire. “She’s suffered a number of setbacks athletically, but she’s never let these affect her to the point of getting in the way of her school work.”