By Taylor Nigrelli
Sports Editor
Last year, while working for the St. Bonaventure sports information office, I had the opportunity to travel with both the men’s and women’s cross country teams.
The intense dedication and commitment to the sport I witnessed to last season has finally begun to pay off for the women’s team this season.
The Bonnies captured their first-ever Little Three Invitational victory Friday with a 28-40-56 victory over Canisius and Niagara.
This early success provides a sharp contrast to nearly every season in St. Bonaventure women’s cross country history. Until 2012, the team had never finished out of last place in the Atlantic 10. Two seasons ago marked the Bonnies first-ever second-place finish at the Little Three Invitational, making this year’s feat all the more impressive by comparison.
The tide has begun to turn for this program. No longer are they a pushover destined to finish in last place every race.
This change in culture began with fourth-year Head Coach Bob Macfarlane’s first recruiting class. This current junior class includes team captain Hannah Robinson, who has consistently been one of the team’s top three runners and holds the fifth-fastest 5k time and fourth-fastest 6k time in school history.
Senior Kady Weisner, who transferred into St. Bonaventure last year, has been another important addition to the team. While she’s also one of the team’s best runners – she holds the second-fastest 5k and 6k times in school history – Macfarlane rarely speaks of her without mentioning her leadership qualities.
And leadership has been vitally important over the past two years as the team has been littered with talented underclassmen. Sophomores Kerry Caher and Aubrie Russell have already etched themselves into the record books with their freshmen year performances. In fact, Caher owns the fastest 6k time in school history (22:25) while Russell owns the third-fastest (23:51).
Overall, runners that have been recruited by Macfarlane hold eight of the 10 spots on the fastest 6k times list and seven of the top 10 5k times.
This is a testament to what the right leadership and direction can do for a program. Just three years ago the team finished last in every race it participated in. Now they’re beating other competitive local programs.
There’s a lot that goes into changing the culture of such a downtrodden program.
Talent can’t hurt. Hard work is obviously a must. But the most difficult aspect of building any team is finding the right blend of personalities. This is where Macfarlane has succeeded.
Every team needs a captain; someone who can always be relied on. But every team also needs comic relief; people who can be counted on to take everyone’s mind off the task at hand before big races and after bad ones. Every team needs glue: guys (or girls), people who bring the team together and make it less of a group of athletes and more of a family.
Combine all those types of personalities and add talent, and you have the perfect formula to build a team. This is precisely what Macfarlane has done at St. Bonaventure.
Anyone who has played or paid attention to sports long enough will tell you that there’s more to putting together a team than giving a bunch of athletes matching uniforms.
The women’s cross country team of St. Bonaventure has shown the campus community just that. And with only one senior and three juniors, they’ll be back to continue to prove that for years to come.
Taylor Nigrelli is the Sports Editor of the Bona Venture. His email is nigreltn11@bonaventure.edu.
