After a regional meet at the University of Pennsylvania Saturday, Virginia's club cross country team wrapped up its premiere season.
The beginnings
The club team began with a dream and a running shop, according to co-founder and Vice President Rebekah Berlin. Berlin said she and her fellow co-founder, President Alyson Welsh, both work at Ragged Mountain Running Shop, where they would talk to their student customers about a possible club cross country team.
This season, the dream came true.
Welsh started talking about it last spring, Berlin said. Welsh said they would go on runs together and she would bounce ideas off Berlin to see what would be feasible for the future club team, which debuted at Virginia this fall.
Welsh and Berlin said they have both reached a conclusion about spearheading a club sports teams at the University: It takes more than athletic ability.
"We did a lot of research before the Activities Fair," Welsh said, who discovered an organization called the National Intercollegiate Running Club Association.
"We noticed there were other schools we could run against that were close to us and hosted meets," Welsh said. "So we knew that once we had competition and places to run, [we had] two key things we needed in order to get this show on the road."
The next step was the Activities Fair in August, where they discovered there was an overwhelming interest -- indicated by hundreds of signatures on the sign-up sheet -- for a club cross country team.
The competitions
Eventually, as the practices intensified, Welsh said the committed membership dwindled to between 25 and 40 members. Yet in its first season at the University, club cross country has already seen national rankings.
NIRCA offers six meets, four regular meets in addition to a regional and a national meet, and the men's team placed first in the James Madison University Invitational, the first meet for the club cross country team.
"Their first-place finish got them ranked as fifth in the nation," Berlin said.
Saturday saw the team at the NIRCA East Regional meet at the University of Pennsylvania, where both the men and the women placed second.
Second-year College student Abigail Coster won the women's competition, and first-year Engineering student Andrew Zohorsky took third place in the men's competition.
The future
Berlin said a lack of funding is the reason why the team did not attend more meets and why the team will not be traveling to Nationals.
The team's funding this season, according to Berlin, came from dues and Student Council. Ragged Mountain Running Shop sponsors the team and helped purchase the team's uniforms.
"Ragged Mountain is somewhat of a headquarters for our team," Berlin said.
Next fall, Berlin said, the team will be hosting its own fundraisers so it will be able to travel to all six NIRCA meets.
Berlin also said Ragged Mountain is planning to help the team host its own meet at Panorama, the University site of NCAA cross country meets.
Challenges and practices
Welsh said spearheading the club cross country team proved to be one of the biggest challenges she has faced in her University experience.
"The biggest challenges were keeping up with membership and active membership and communicating with everyone on the e-mail list," Welsh said. "Word of mouth was incredible and keeping track of everyone proved to be extremely difficult."
Berlin said planning for transportation and lodging for the meets was also an issue.
"We had to work hard to create a team atmosphere," Berlin added. "We organized spaghetti parties and a 'come-dressed-as-your-worst-fear party.'"
Berlin said creating a sense of cohesion among team members was important because many of the runners had never met each other due to the fact that the team had both morning and afternoon practices.
Welsh said designing workouts at first was difficult, until Education School graduate student Matt Gutridge, a former varsity runner for the Cavaliers, assumed the position of "faraway coach."
Welsh said Gutridge e-mails her individualized workouts for the entire team, based on injury and personal record information.
Third-year Engineering student Kevin Meehan said he has enjoyed practicing and competing with the team.
"It's a lot of fun, I used to be on the actual cross country team and this is a good change of pace for me," Meehan said. "It is competitive and at the same time very relaxed."
All in all, Berlin and Welsh are pleased with how the season turned out.
"Picture a married couple that went broke," Berlin said. "Our friendship was tested on multiple levels, but it came out stronger."
Welsh said the organization took a lot of effort, but she sees the strength in her team.
"It took a lot of collaboration and organization, but some people really stepped up and helped out," Welsh said. "The group of 25 that we have, we couldn't ask for any better. They all have something different to offer to the team."
Meehan said he appreciates and has benefited from the Welsh's and Berlin's efforts.
"There are so many aspects and factors in organizing this team and [Welsh and Berlin] have handled it really well," Meehan said. "Hopefully next year we'll have more people doing different things. I think the team itself is great and it is a fun way to gel with people who all enjoy the same thing"
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