The Grand Finale: Star Seniors Reflect Ahead Of Their Last Cross Country Season

As athletes all across the country prepare for their final season of collegiate competition, the stage is set before them as a final opportunity to finish their career with the storybook ending that all seniors wish for. Before they ride off into the sunset, it is important to note that not all endings had the same beginnings. Each athlete’s storyline across all three divisions through their years can be attributed to the ones they built their careers around, and the memories and motivations they possess. 

Whether it is NCAA Division I’s twists and turns at Gans Creek Cross Country Course in Missouri, which looks to host tens of thousands of spectators. The treacherous and winding hills of NCAA Division II’s championship at UW-Parkside’s Wayne E. Dannehl National Cross Country Course in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The idyllic landscape of NCAA Division III’s Roger Millikin Cross Country Course is near the backdrop of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Before these seniors hang up the spikes, let’s look into the journey these athletes have taken and what their final season of cross country is to them. 

I interviewed the University of Virginia’s Gary Martin, and Brigham Young University’s own Riley Chamberlain. Martin is the top returner from last year’s championship in Madison, Wisconsin, as the Cavalier star finished 13th last year. Meanwhile, Chamberlain is the top returner for the Lady Cougars and was 31st in last year’s championship as she helped push her team to a team national title. 

In addition, Division II’s athletes have been chosen as they have exhibited great feats in their own right during last year’s championship. On the men’s side, Ethan Grolnic was the third runner that crossed the line for the Orediggers, yet was ninth overall. On the women’s side, Lauren Kiley won the women’s title as she beat many others by a narrow margin of victory. Despite that, she won in dominant fashion and looks to be the top returner for Grand Valley State University and the defending champion in Division II.

I posed the same questions to two runners in Division III. On the men’s side, I interviewed Nathan Tassey who had a dominant season last fall and was completely undefeated up until the national meet where he finished fourth overall and looks to continue that hot streak this fall. On the women’s side, I interviewed Calvin’s own Sophie Bull who finished 28th in Terre Haute last season. She reigned this May as an individual national champion in the steeplechase while running one of the best times in Division III history. Both runners have a lot to prove as they start the end of their last season on the grass.

The Grand Finale

To start this conversation, I presented these athletes with the question, “As you begin the end of your final cross country season, what does it mean to you?”

Gary Martin: “It means a lot because I have seen the team grow and change a lot in the past four years. We have had a lot of ups and a lot of downs and a lot of those guys who have been with me through those times are still here. We brought in some grad transfers and some young guys who are really good, but the core of the team has been very much the same the last four years. We have a chance to do something really special this last year which is really exciting.” 

Riley Chamberlain: “I think it is the opportunity to continue to build on what we built from last year and to take everything I have learned and put it together for one final season. I think it is really special to try to execute everything I have learned and try to appreciate all the love and to take that and give it back to my teammates. It is really special to be in a different role than I have been in before, now it is kind of strange to get to be a leader.”

Ethan Grolnic: “Going into this last season, it really feels like it means everything. It kind of sounds like a cliche, but the easy answer is just everything. It’s these guys, it’s this whole team, it is the thirty other dudes that I call my family. I feel like everything they do and I do is for each other and this is such a big part of my life and everything I have done to get here is just a culmination of it all.”

Lauren Kiley: “It means a lot because I have been doing this sport basically my entire life. I have been doing it for more years than I haven’t been doing it. I just really want to give myself a good ending, something that just feels right. I had a great season last year that I really did not expect and I don’t really know how I am going to one-up it, or if I can. I am going to try my best and make sure I can stay healthy so I can go indoors and hopefully make it outdoors this year, since I haven’t been able to for the past couple of years. I have a good feeling about it and I have come in pretty fit off of an injury in March, but it has not really impacted my running. I feel like I am in an even better spot than I was last year, so hopefully good things are coming.”

Nathan Tassey: “I started Cross Country in sixth grade, this is the culmination of a long part of my life that is hard to give up. It is tough because when you are done with track, you can still do track races that you can go to. That is not the case with Cross Country. It has such a central place in my heart and it is where I really fell in love with running. Competition and competitiveness aside, I just love the sport.”

Sophie Bull: “It means a lot, and it sort of feels like the culmination of a lot of years of running and hard work. So obviously I am excited to see what I can do this season. Honestly, I just want to enjoy it and you know how special Cross Country is and soak up every minute and every mile. I want to appreciate the process this season while I still can. I just hope to enjoy my senior year.”

On Motivation

Along with what this season represents, I wanted to know what drove these individuals. I wanted to know what their main reasons are for when they put their jersey on and lace up their spikes. I asked, “What is your greatest motivation going into this season?”

Gary Martin: “I think my greatest motivation is to show up day in and day out and be a great teammate, I want us to get better and grow as a team. In Cross Country, you can have one or two great guys but if you don’t have seven to ten guys who are ready to go on any given day, then you’re not going to win anything as a team. My biggest motivation is to build the team up and to have everyone grow and get better together and show up at ACC’s, Regionals, and Nationals when it matters most. To also have a complete team who is ready to have seven guys become All-Americans and hopefully put a team on the podium. I think the better I can be individually would be best for what I can do for the team. I surprised myself a little bit and I feel like I was just scratching the surface of what I can do. I have gotten a lot stronger this year and my goal now is to go out there and win it. I am going to do everything I can in training to have the confidence to win nationals and show up and defend my ACC title and be consistent and fight for the win at nationals.”

Riley Chamberlain: “Just getting to build on last year, I mean we capped off our season with a national championship, which is just the most you could ask for. Getting to build off that and also getting to see what else we can get done this year with a new crew and figuring out how we all work together because it is not going to be the same as last year. My motivation is to be able to get it done with this new team and to figure out what that means and try to be my best self and help anyone else to be their best self.”

Ethan Grolnic: “When I look at what inspires me or what gets me out the door after a hard workout or when I don’t want to get my shoes on, it is the love of the guys and the love of the sport. No other sport I feel like puts you so in touch with your own limits as our sport. Everyday it is just about being better than you were, I just love doing that. It is also about the guys who came before putting respect and honor to them in the ways that they taught me. The things they showed me and the chances they all took on me as an athlete, and especially my coach, because I was a nobody in high school. I wasn’t fast at all and I barely walked on. My coach just gave me that opportunity and my motivation is just that I love doing this, but to also honor all those guys who showed me the way and took a chance on me.”

Lauren Kiley: “Probably my teammates, I think I have had a lot of hardships on this team and I know a lot of other girls have too. I just think we have had a pretty good team atmosphere and we can work with each other and rely on each other. We are at a point where we are not worried about not being ranked first, not even second, and Grand Valley is always between first or second. This year we aren’t doing that, we see ourselves as more underdogs than anything this season. We hope that if we have a good comradery and if we work together and get each other through these workouts, keep each other healthy, and keep each other engaged, that we are going to be able to do some great things. We are just hoping to do better than third.”

Nathan Tassey: “My greatest motivation has to be the 10k, and getting disqualified. All the negative comments that I have been seeing and understanding that I did technically win but I got it taken away. I just want to prove that I can stay on top. That disqualification is my biggest motivator. After that race, I wrote “snubbed” on my bib and hung that over my bed and I just look at it every morning when I wake up. That is what gets me, that is what pushes me everyday.”

Sophie Bull: “That is a question that really makes me stop and think. I would say there are a couple motivations, the first would be my teammates. Just knowing that we are all working together to make the program the best it can be and knowing that those girls are out there working hard every single day makes me want to do it for them too. Second, I want to be the best runner I can be in reaching my full potential and doing things I never thought that I could do. I just need to put in the work to hopefully make the most of my ability. Lastly, I need to glorify God with the gifts and abilities I have been blessed with. It is a combination of all of those that are what get me out of bed each and every day and put in the work.”

Role Models

After looking back on their motivations for those around them, I asked, “Who was the most impactful senior to you?”

Gary Martin: “We had a lot of really great seniors, but the two to me are Rohann Asfaw and Derek Johnson. Rohan Asfaw was a sixth year when I got here, he was a really great Cross Country guy. He was someone who, in my first Cross Country season, I could really lean on and just get me through workouts, teach me how to be consistent, and to run in a pack during races. Derek Johnson was another one for me, he was an experienced All-American in track and once we got into track season I started to train with him. He was someone who taught me a lot about pushing myself and how to get the most out of my training on a daily basis, as well as being the best version of myself.”

Riley Chamberlain: “Lexi Halladay has always been a great leader to me, but I think she was a junior when at that point, but I think the senior that had the biggest impact on me that year was Sadie Sargent. She had gone through a lot before I had even gotten to BYU from where she finished to where she started. She proved that anything was possible, she was always around to help me and always around to show what has helped her and to see if it would help me a lot. She would show me things that helped elevate her game and to see if it would help elevate mine. I learned a lot from her, just watching her, and she ended her career as an All-American and went pro with Nike. To see her build all the way back my freshmen year was just incredible to see.”

Ethan Grolnic: “It would probably have to be a guy named Steven Goldy. He just approaches life with so much joy and happiness he finds little ways to make you laugh or take you out of your own head. When you’re hurting in a workout, he’s the guy who is there to cheer you on and get everybody hyped up and ready to go. He showed me a way of approaching the sport that I didn’t really know before and how to have fun and how to really enjoy running fast with all the guys we have.”

Lauren Kiley: “When I was a freshman there was Natalie Graber who was a fifth year on the team, so she was the super senior. She was a physical therapy student so she just had a lot of schooling. She was the one I was constantly paired with at hotels or when we were training partners. She was my workout buddy and I leaned off her and I worked with her and she worked with me. She was a very kind and level-headed competitor where she did everything fairly and right, but she had a really great competitiveness in her where she could get stuff done. She would do everything for the team, not just for her own motivation. She wasn’t here with us last year for cross, and I am just so used to chasing her in every race and workout. It is the same when I race now, I just envision her in front of me because that’s how it was for the first couple years here.”

Nathan Tassey: “There were not a whole lot of seniors, there were four or five. I would say that the upperclassman that I looked up to the most was Alex. He was the number one on the team and he was a quick guy. My only goal was to stick with him and I would see that he would run pretty fast over the summer. I really locked down and focused on trying to be able to keep up with him.”

Sophie Bull: “This is an easy question for me. It would definitely be Jenna Allman, she graduated last year and I honestly feel like she helped make me the runner I am today. Coming to Calvin, I looked up to her a lot and thought that she was so fast and so cool. When I got better at running, I was able to be her training partner. We did countless workouts together. As I started preparing for national meets, I feel like she really helped show me the ropes with that and with steeplechase as well. She definitely helped me grow and she was such a great person.”

Final Reflections

To wrap up all of their individual and amazing careers, I asked them to pause for a moment and think about the following, “Years from now, when you look back on your career and last season, what do you want to remember the most?”

Gary Martin: “I want to have no regrets and just know that I put everything into it. This is the year when you want to make it count the most and there are a lot of other guys on the team’s last year too. I want to make sure I am putting my best foot forward everyday and enjoy the time I have left with my teammates and hopefully put together good results. While we are enjoying the process and showing up and just running really fast and making it worth our while.”

Riley Chamberlain: “Honestly, I want to remember all the memories out here. I want to remember how I felt being with coach and being through not just the high moments but also the moments it took to get there. Just thinking about all my seasons right now, the best part wasn’t necessarily reaching the end goal but it was the process and the build to get there. I want to be able to remember that, and how that felt with how I made it through that and all the people I was able to do it with.”

Ethan Grolnic: “I think it is just the little things and how every year there seems like there is some little joke, phrase, or a song, or something that comes to the forefront of that season. So it is just like thirty guys and there are like five who are chronically online, so some things just stick. Whatever that funny snippet is that just binds us together and it is just a part of that family aspect. Looking back at the years I have had and picking out that little piece is just a great memory that is a great thing to hold onto.”

Lauren Kiley: “I want to remember having a good season that was consistently good. I want to say that this is for sure my best year. My junior year was something that I did not expect at all to go as well as it did until it ended shortly. I want a full cross country season, full indoors, full outdoors, make it every meet, and stay healthy. I want to try to cut down on all the times that I can and have some great times coming out and hopefully continue to run in the future.”

Nathan Tassey: “I think I want to remember the person that college running shaped me into. I never really took running as seriously as I should have. Having a coach who cares so much about just dialing down and focusing really changes who you are as a person. I am not sure how I am going to be when I graduate and how I will shift into a new chapter of my life, but all of that is what I will remember most.”

Sophie Bull: “I would say that obviously the big achievements are fun to look back on, but the best moments are the little things in between. The early morning practices, the traditions, the team meals, the bus rides, all those things are what I will miss most. After college, I can still enjoy running but those small moments are things I will want to look back on and are what made my time here so special.”