By Mikael DeSanto
Sports Assignment Editor
The cross country careers of five St. Bonaventure seniors are coming to an end. The men’s and women’s cross country team will see Ben Collins, for the men, and Rachel Konieczny, Alexis Young, Allison Field and Courtney Brinsky for the women, graduate after this season and the upcoming track season.
Head coach Bob MacFarlane said Collins has done everything asked of him and more during his time on the team.
“Ben has been nothing but exceptional. The last two years he has been our captain and he has been our leader,” MacFarlane said. “He has worked very hard athletically and academically; I couldn’t ask for a better kid. [He] has a lot of potential in his life, and it is like I tell all the kids when we are recruiting them, that the number one reason they are coming here is for their academics, and Ben has taken his academics very seriously.”
Konieczny, though a senior, is competing in her first season of cross country for the Bonnies this year, as she faced some bumps in the road to start.
“I started my running career at Washington and Lee, which is a Division III school, and because I ran a few meets there, then I transferred again to Slippery Rock, I didn’t run; I couldn’t compete when I first arrived here as a sophomore,” Konieczny said. “That was my redshirt season, and then the following year I was injured with an ACL and meniscus tear, so I had to sit that season out as well.”
MacFarlane said he is amazed by what Konieczny has been able to accomplish this season.
“She had to sit a year, then last year she was hurt, and for what she is doing this year is remarkable,” MacFarlane said. “She had reconstruction surgery on her knee, and I give her a lot of credit because where she was a year ago today, I wouldn’t have thought she would have been able to do what she is doing. That just shows you her desire and her dedication.”
Field, Brinsky and Young, as well as Konieczny, according to MacFarlane, have put a lot of work into getting better both on the course and in the classroom.
“All four of the girls, too, are the same way, top-notch students. They worked with me for the last four years and had a very good career here at Bonaventure,” MacFarlane said. “I give Allison a lot; she just works and she has given me everything she has had along the line, and the same goes for Courtney and Alexis.”
Young said she is grateful for the opportunities she has gotten as a part of the team and for the people she has met along the way.
“I have really appreciated the experience I have had, that I have been able to go all over the region with a group of really great guys and girls,” Young said. “I have gotten to know some really awesome people from the team, and I think that has been an invaluable experience and I am really happy to be able to do that.”
MacFarlane feels that all the seniors have contributed greatly to the overall success of the team, whether it is in training or getting the team together.
“[Ben] has been showing the younger kids what it takes to run at the D1 [level] and what you need to do to become a better runner,” MacFarlane said. “It is not just the running aspect; it is all the details that go into it: the lifting two to three times a week, it is the summer workouts, the winter workouts, paying attention to your nutrition, paying attention to your classroom, paying attention to your sleep habits, because all of that plays into effect as being a runner.”
“On the women’s side, all four of them, each in their own way, they have been helping the younger kids on the recruiting side. They are very helpful on that end, bringing in kids and being ambassadors to the program,” said MacFarlane
Both Konieczny and Young had messages for their teammates.
“Keep working hard and remember to put other people first; just be good people,” Young said.
“Just do the best you can, know that every day you work in practice, it goes towards your competition,” Konieczny said. “So work as hard as you can, even if someone is not out there on the field pushing you, and have fun with it.”
Collins, Brinsky and Field couldn’t be reached for comment.
desantmj13@bonaventure.edu
