WESTFIELD, Mass. –     Westfield State senior Amy O'Sullivan (Greenfield, Mass.) ran a personal best time of 22:08.1 to place 66th at the 2021 NCAA Division III Women's Cross Country Championship at EP Tom Sawyer State Park in Louisville, Ky. on Saturday afternoon.

 

Junior Kassie Rosenbaum of Loras (Iowa) College won the individual title with a fast time of 20:11 after leading the race wire-to-wire, 17 seconds faster than Ari Marks, a senior at Wellesley College.

 

O'Sullivan was 35th at the 1k split in 3:41.3 and 42nd at the 3k split in 10:48.9.

 

"It was definitely an interesting race," said O'Sullivan "With so many people around you, I was surrounded by about 30 others most of the race, which was different from most of the season, I had to be careful not to get tripped up and to keep up with the other runners around me."

 

"My shoe came untied right around mile 2, and that was my 'oh my god' moment in the middle of the race, because I didn't want to lose the shoe," said O'Sullivan. "But after about 30 secondsI relaxed, my foot was still in, my heel was still in, and even though the laces were flopping everywhere it was still laced up, and I knew I couldn't stop because I would be done."

 

She slipped back a bit in the next several kilometers, then came flying with a kick down the right side of the course in her final 300 meters.  Her time of 22:08 set a personal best for 6k by about five seconds and was 16 seconds faster than she ran at the pre-nationals meet on the same course in mid-October.

 

"After the 5k mark, it's kind of a slow downhill and you're in the woods in an area with no coaches and spectators, it's quieter than the scream tunnel of the first 2k, and that's where I thought it would be a good place to go," added O'Sullivan.  "I think I am a strong downhill runner, some runners tend to relax, and I just started looking ahead to the next runner and trying to close the gap, and then focus on the next one, and used that to pull me along."

 

"It was a really fast race," said Westfield State head coach Bill Devine. "There was not much of a time gap between 40th and 70th place.   Amy ran a great race, she must have picked off 10 or 15 runners in the final 200 meters."

 

A total of 293 of the top athletes in NCAA Division 3 cross country started in the national championship race, with 32 compete teams scoring, plus individual qualifiers like O'Sullivan.

 

O'Sullivan placed seventh among runners from public colleges.  SUNY Geneseo placed third as a team with five runners in the top 50, and one runner from Wisconsin-Lacrosse slotted in ahead of O'Sullivan.  O'Sullivan was 14th among runners from New England Colleges.

 

O'Sullivan said she didn't really plan to end with such a kick, but that she raced more by feel.

 

"After eight years of cross country [in high school and college] I race much more by feel, how you feel on that given day. I tried to go hard and run fast, and just do my best."

 

"It was really exciting to be here, be surrounded by good competition and a lot of serious runners that have the same goal, and it was a great atmosphere," said O'Sullivan who won the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference individual and team championship with the Owls earlier this season.

 

While O'Sullivan has an additional season of eligibility for cross country due to the Covid-19 pandemic which canceled her junior season in the fall of 2020, she plans to graduate this spring with a degree in math.

 

O'Sullivan will enjoy a short break from competition before racing in the distance events for Westfield State's indoor track and field team this winter.

 

"I'm probably looking at this a capstone for cross country. I couldn't be happier with how it ended," she said.