Freshmen Nicole Bubie and Veronica Bujdos have set the sights high for the women’s cross country team.

Choosing Gannon for its education and small-town feel, these two all-stars find their sport is calling their names. Bubie came to Gannon to become a physician assistant, and is now she is setting personal bests on the course, having recently taken third-place individually and helped the women’s cross country team claim a second-place finish this past weekend at the Roberts Wesleyan Invitational. Her time of 18 minutes, 14 seconds was her second-best this season.

Bujdos, who said she came to Gannon for the biology program, also helped the Knights earn second place by setting her personal best this past weekend with a time of 18:36.

Both women agree that their choice to come to Gannon has been the right one.

“I know I definitely made the right decision” Bujdos said.

“Everyone is really friendly” Bubie said, “It is like we are a family.”

Neither of Gannon’s two leading runners said she imagined attaining such success during her freshman years, and both of them said it hasn’t been easy.

“Having a really good senior year definitely prepared me,” said Bubie.

Bujdos said “It has not been my best year, but it is still the beginning.”

It is a given that the first year of anything may present some growing pains, but for two Knights — whether they may think it or not — have proven themselves.

Both attribute their successes to the support the team provides.

“We are constantly pushing each other,” Bujdos said.

Bubie said, “There is no pressure by the team, just what I put on myself.”

This sentiment is mutual between the two, who say it is not uncommon within sports such as cross country. “The majority of the pressure comes from who I am racing against,” Bubie said.

Just like in any sport Bubie and Bujdos have good and bad days.

“There is one thing I live by,” Bubie said, “If you have a bad race you just have to get over it.”

Bujdos also trains hard each and every day to make sure she doesn’t have to deal with getting over a bad race. She said her main focus is maintaining speed and she spilled her secret on how she is doing this.

“I stretch every morning when I get up, and twice a week I do abdominal workouts with the team,” Bujdos said.

Bubie’s main focus differs.

“It all depends on the runner and what they are capable of,” she said. To avoid injury and to excel, Bubie said she tries “to know your body and when and how much to push it.”

Bubie, who hails from Rochester, N.Y., is hoping to be in the region’s top 30 to qualify for the Atlantic Regional in November but has a more modest goal of decreasing her time for the Pennsylvania State Atlantic Conference Championships during the Oct. 20 weekend.

Bujdos, who is from Indiana, Pa., and the rest of the runners from the women’s team are preparing every day for the new course this weekend. The meet will be held at Slippery Rock University, which is the same course Gannon will be running during the PSAC.

“This race will be harder than most,” Bubie said. “It is a 6K rather than 5K course.”

The only thing the entire Gannon team can do physically together to prepare for the weekend is “to not slow down half way through and to maintain our speed,” Bujdos said.

These two freshman sensations have been improving their times each and every weekend. The race on Saturday in Slippery Rock will be their chance to see what needs to improve or stay the same.

Both Bubie and Bujdos note that the 6K race will take a lot of preparation mentally and physically.

“We will need to get enough rest the night before the race,” Bujdos said.

In order to be on their ‘A’ game they will need to go into the race with a “calm attitude,” Bubie added.

BECKY HILKER

hilker001@knights.gannon.edu

The Gannon University men’s and women’s cross country teams are learning on the fly this season. Both literally and figuratively.

The men’s team has already notched an invitational win, while the women are in a transitional state, according to coach John Carrig.

“Our guys are improving,” Carrig said. “We have a couple freshmen that are getting better with every competition. And we have a good nucleus.”

The men’s team kicked the 2011 season off with its first-ever win at the Fisher Invitational hosted by Westminster College on Sept. 3.

Meanwhile, the women’s team finished seventh among 17 teams at the season-opening Fisher Invitational, before managing a third-place finish in a seven-team field at the Forest Festival Cross Country Meet hosted by Davis & Elkins College Saturday.

“The girls are a little thin this year; we don’t have a lot of depth,” Carrig said. “We’ve got a lot of young runners, and we’ve also had to fight through some injuries.”

In spite of injuries, the teams were able to place well at the Fisher Invitational.

The men’s team, led by junior Andy Hellmann, collected 95 points, narrowly besting Mercyhurst, which finished with 96.

Hellmann completed the 8K race with a time of 28 minutes, 27 seconds—24 seconds behind Franciscan’s Bill Jones, who won the race in 28 minutes, 3 seconds. Senior Mike Holovka finished at 17th place with a time of 29 minutes, 14 seconds.

The women’s team netted 185 points for seventh place, while Clarion set the winning pace with 71 points. Senior Madison Steward led the women’s team with an 11th-place finish of 25 minutes, 7 seconds in the 6K race.

“The season has been great so far,” Steward said. “I want to give the guys a ton of credit for their win in the opener, but the girls have also been running well.”

The Knights followed up their season-opening performance when both the men and women finished third in the team standings of the Forest Festival meet Saturday.

Seton Hill ran away with the women’s title by accumulating a mere 16 points, while West Virginia Wesleyan took home the men’s title with 28 points.

Carrig said the team’s solid performance was a result of enjoyable running conditions.

“The kids love the course,” he said. “They go through streams and long grass. It’s really a strength-building course because it’s all uphill.”

Steward once again led the women’s charge when her 24 minute, 10 second time was good enough to capture eighth place. Hellmann also anchored the men’s team with an eighth-place finish of 30 minutes 15 seconds.

The men’s team added four other runners in the top 20, as redshirt junior Carter Denne notched a 14th-place finish and Holovka placed 16th, while sophomore Adam Walker finished 17th and freshman Eric Boring was the 20th runner to cross the finish line.

The women’s team also chipped in with a trio of top-20 participants, as junior Kathleen Driving Hawk, senior Jenna Szczepanski and junior Christina Estes finished 14th, 15th and 19th, respectively.

The Gannon harriers will try to build on their solid finishes at 10 a.m. Saturday, when they compete at the Penn State Behrend Invitational.

Steward said that the team has the tools to compete.

“There’s a lot of potential,” she said. “There’s a lot of hard-working people on this team, and I know we’re just getting better.”

JOE CUNEO

cuneo001@gannon.edu

Now, the junior heads into the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Championship Saturday having led Gannon University’s men’s cross country program in four of the five invitationals the Knights have competed in this season.

All it took was a change in scenery and perspective.

Following in his father’s footsteps, Denne started running in the fifth grade. The North East native lettered in both soccer and cross country, but it was the latter of the two sports that he pursued in college.

“I’m just a big fan of running,” Denne said. “It’s personal time to just get away from things that are stressing you out.”

However, Denne’s first experience with college athletics ended up becoming the stressor.

Out of high school, Denne attended Purdue University, a Division I program, and the experience nearly drove him out of competition entirely. He said that while at Purdue, he was over-trained, which lead to injury and disenchantment with the sport.

“They use you at Division I,” John Carrig, coach of the cross country team, said.  “They treat you like it’s  a job there.”

Denne transferred to Gannon after his first year at Purdue to attend Gannon’s physical therapy program and to be closer to his family, including his girlfriend and daughter. 

Upon his return home, Denne thought he left his competitive career behind him, but after meeting Carrig and other members of the cross country squad, Denne began racinga after a yearlong hiatus.

The return wasn’t without a new outlook on the sport, however.

“Before this year, I was really into competition, but this time I run more for fun,” Denne said. “It really helps me stay injury-free and enjoy running more.  It’s more about giving it your all than about ‘oh, I got 50th place instead of 49th.’”

Carrig said he understands how the change in scenery helped bring Denne back to the sport.

“We’re a little more flexible here,” Carrig said. “I told him, ‘your family comes first.’”

Carrig said he works around the junior’s busy schedule and that he doesn’t worry about Denne missing any team workouts, knowing that he will make up for missed time on his own.

“You can’t treat everyone the same, but you have to treat everyone fairly,” Carrig said. “He’s a hard worker; he brings a lot of leadership to this team.  Really, he’s just an all-around nice guy.”

Denne said that the rest of the team really helped bring him back to the sport, crediting the group’s helpfulness and laid-back nature as key to making his transition back to competitive running a smooth one.

While he doesn’t focus as strenuously on placement and shaving seconds off of his time as he used to, Denne does have something to prove to people.

“I’ve been a vegan for the past year,” Denne said.  “There’s that stereotype that [vegans] can’t be athletes. I’m trying to remove that stigma.”

Denne gets another opportunity to make his point this Friday when the men’s and women’s cross country teams head to California (Pa.) University for the PSAC championship, an event that Denne said he looks forward to.

“I feel like the whole team is in good shape,” Denne said. “Everybody’s on the same page.”

While the end of the cross country season nears, it won’t mark the end of Denne’s story, as the junior still has two years of eligibility remaining. 

Denne found a good thing at Gannon, and he ran with it.

ALEX BIELER

bieler001@gannon.edu