JARED HILL
Special to The Leader
Fredonia cross country had a strong showing at the NCAA Atlantic Regionals — three students qualified for the NCAA championship.
Last weekend, men and women’s cross country traveled to Castle, New York, for the NCAA Atlantic Regional races in Letchworth State Park. Both the men’s and women’s teams finished 11th overall, but three runners were fortunate enough to qualify for the National Championship at Lake Breeze Golf Course in Winneconne, Wisconsin.
Those runners were seniors Kyle Collins, Collin Mulcahy and Laura Morrison, all of which are proud seniors here at Fredonia.
Mulcahy and Collins finished in the men’s race side-by-side in eighth and ninth place. Morrison qualified 10th and is heading to the Division III National Championship race to conclude her first ever season running cross country.
“Today’s race was an incredible experience,” says Morrison. “It’s been great to be part of an amazing team that has rallied around each other all season — especially today. We all had strong performances and I’m so proud of both the boy’s and girl’s team.”
“Regionals was an experience that I’ll never forget,” Mulcahy recalls. His journey to the NCAA title is one of great determination and resiliency. “Cross country has never been my strongest sport, but this year I almost had [a] chip on my shoulder after not being able to run last year [due to an injury]. I came into regionals not knowing what to expect out of myself … For me, it all came down to believing in my training and knowing that I belong up there with the best runners in the region.”
The support for the cross country team was unwavering; fellow teammates couldn’t be more proud.
“It was true demonstration of our motto to ‘hurt for each other and bleed blue,’” said Rebekah Champlin, a junior member of the women’s cross country team, who’s been sidelined due to injury.
Nevertheless, she was a spectator at regionals with great pride and passion.
“Today’s events were a complete compilation of all the hard work we put in this season. The atmosphere was filled with pride and emotion for each runner out there,” said Champlin. “We even had several alumni drive from areas like Buffalo, Rochester, Connecticut and Long Island to support the team. That’s saying something about this program.”
Great efforts came from junior Cody Martini, junior Bobby Cooper, freshman Ethan Francis, freshman Joe Northup and sophomore Merlin Joseph Jr. for the men’s. On the women’s team great efforts were seen by senior Lauren Kotas, junior Bonnie Binggeli, freshman Hannah Kurbs, freshman Stephanie Wojnowski, junior Julia Johnson and junior Kara Hall.
At the end of the day, it’s quite exciting that there are three proud Fredonians competing for the national title. Morrison is the first woman to be running for Fredonia since 2002. For the men, it will be the first time Fredonia will be sending more than one runner since 1992.
The three qualifiers will compete for the championship this Saturday.