The Ithaca College women’s cross-country team is looking to improve from last year, when they placed 5th at both the Liberty League Championship and the Regional Championship.
The Bombers have gained five new first-year students –– Madison Buckley, Hannah Pawlowski, Maddie Sichak, Nicole Tellechea and Hana Weisinger. All members of the team are returning except three.
Head coach Erin Dinan, entering her 19th year with the program, said she wants to climb up the Liberty League ranks this year.
“My goals always are to improve upon everybody’s personal performances and to take the team to the next level,” Dinan said. “I want to build upon each year. I want to be competitive in our Liberty League conference.”
Dinan said she wants to be competitive in the regional championships and hopes to be able to go to the national championships. Two athletes qualified for nationals in recent seasons: junior Kyla Eisman competed in 2023 and junior Jessica Goode competed in 2022.
This year, the Bombers have considerable potential as they are returning Eisman and Goode, who both won Liberty League awards in spring of 2024. Dinan said she is expecting strong performances from juniors Kayleigh Milligan and Logan Brasacchio, noting the improvements she saw during the transition from cross-country to track and field last year.
Dinan said she is excited about many opponents this year, like Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, University of Rochester and St. Lawrence University.
Milligan said she is aiming to set new personal records for the events she competes in. She said her goal for the team is keeping up the effort into the postseason, which is when the team struggled last year.
Dinan will be taking on new responsibilities this year, not just as the women’s cross-country and track coach, but also as the men’s cross-country and track coach. This year will be different because of that, but the students know she is up for the job. Brasacchio said Dinan has been able to stay on top of both teams with ease.
“That’s a big change that she had to undertake,” Brasacchio said. “She’s just done a phenomenal job delegating our workouts and explaining training and getting nutritionists in to talk to us and giving us opportunities to learn more about not just what we should be doing for training, but why we’re doing that.”
Milligan — who took a break during the 2023 track season — said Dinan provided her with outstanding support upon her return.
“She’s amazing,” Milligan said. “I’ve definitely had my times in the past two years where I haven’t been the most excited about running or anything, and she has never once pressured me to do anything. My [first] year, I didn’t do track –– I took a season off and she was so understanding. She was so supportive, and I think that having a coach that doesn’t pressure you to do anything you don’t want to do was really important.”
Dinan explained that both men’s and women’s teams will likely be training in the same places, which is different from years past, when they trained separately. This year, Dinan said she thinks the teams will have a closer connection because she has set up new team bonding experiences.
Over the off-season, Dinan gave the team work to do. Brasacchio said summer is the most important part of the team’s season and that they need to be prepared when they get back to campus. Milligan explained that many team members use an app that allows them to look at each other’s runs and provide encouragement.
Another important part of the team’s success is their relationship with each other. During the week before the 2024-25 academic year began, the men’s and women’s teams did a team-building trip to Greek Peak Mountain Resort. Dinan has done this trip with the women for the past two years, making this their third trip for the women’s and the first trip with the men’s team. Brasacchio talked about the importance of having the first-year students at this team bonding event
“It’s like the coolest experience,” Brasacchio said. “All the [first-year students] come in and we get to meet them, and we get to eat all our meals in this cabin, and do runs out on these like country roads, and we get to paddle board and do a high ropes course. So it’s like just a fun experience to get them to be a part of the team and get to know them really well, because that’s really scary to come in as a [first-year student].
Brasacchio expressed her passion for the cross-country team and said she is looking forward to the upcoming season.
“I just love this team, and we have something really special,” Brasacchio said. “I’m really excited for the season and coach Dinan is by far one of the best coaches that I’ve ever worked with –– [she’s] very athlete-focused, makes sure that everyone gets exactly what they need individually, really looks at each athlete just for who they are.”
The Bombers hosted their annual Jannette Bonrouhi-Zakaim Memorial Alumni Run on Aug. 30 to kick off the season. The first official meet will be at 11 a.m. Sept. 7 at SUNY Brockport.
