Armed with two NCAA Championship-experienced runners, the Ithaca College women’s cross-country team is ready to speed past the competition.
Three years ago, senior Jessica Goode reached the NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships in her first season with the team. Last season, senior Joy Petersen followed in Goode’s footsteps. She recorded a personal best at regionals with a time of 22 minutes and 44.6 seconds.
While she dreamed of qualifying for nationals since joining the Bombers, Petersen said that she thought it was a lofty goal. She said the best part about qualifying was how special the people around her made her feel.
“I had so many people reach out to me via text, who have graduated, who are currently on the track team, or even just my friends at [IC],” Petersen said. “The national experience was very, very cool, but I think it really attests to the sort of community that we’ve built at [IC].”
Nationals were particularly special to Petersen because of the hamstring injury she battled with early in the season. She said her teammates supported her every step of the way.
“There’s a lot of emotions that run around when you’re going through something like that,” Petersen said. “The fact that my teammates were able to understand and keep me within the loop and involve me, regardless of the fact that I wasn’t able to go out on a run with them.”
Community was also a large focus of head coach Erin Dinan Frahm. Dinan Frahm has served as head coach of the women’s cross-country team since 2012, but last season marked her first as head coach of men’s cross-country. Switching from a part-time to a full-time staff member meant that she could spend more time with her athletes, but she also had double the roster.
“I didn’t much think about the impact on the women,” Dinan Frahm said. “They joked a lot last year, saying ‘we’re like your first kid. You don’t care about us anymore, now that you have the second kid, the men’s team.’ … It was hard because they had to share me, in a sense. One thing that I think is really important is the connection with my athletes, so I work really hard at making sure that I connect with them on an individual basis.”
One way that Dinan Frahm has connected with her athletes is by hosting joint-team dinners. They let her socialize while also determining where the runners are in their training.
“I’m like, ‘OK, I need to know where you’re at,’” Dinan Frahm said. “What has your mileage been? What has your longest run been? We gotta acclimate them coming back here, so I don’t want to jump too crazy for some. It’s also understanding the landscape of where they’re at.”
Dinan Frahm said running is a sport that you can do without anyone else, which makes it accessible, but is hard for motivation. During the off-season, Petersen said the runners gravitate toward running apps like Strava to see how each other are doing.
“I remember one of my Strava chains, in the comments, there were like 20 of them of people going back and forth,” Petersen said. “That was so funny.”
Sophomore Hannah Pawlowski said her team is vital to her success on the course.
“We’re all running the same race, so we all have the same training that we’re doing,” Pawlowski said. “It’s kind of pushing each other, and they’re like, ‘Hey, we can do this, we’re a team.’ Teammates are there to help us keep moving.”
Dinan Frahm said that Pawlowski, as well as sophomore team captain Madison Buckley, had standout freshman seasons in 2024. Pawlowski was named Rookie of the Week after completing the SUNY Brockport Alumni Classic 5k in 20 minutes and 49.7 seconds. This season, Pawlowski said she is ready to expand on her skills.
“Over the off-season, I built up my mileage a little bit more,” Pawlowski said. “I’d like to improve more on hills, and I know we’re definitely going to be incorporating more of that into our training this fall, which is going to be perfect.”
Dinan Frahm said she is also expecting great things from two last-minute additions to the team, first-year runners Nora Black and Raya Mount. Dinan Frahm said she got a phone call from Mount’s high school coach vouching for the athletic ability Mount would bring to the team.
“I know her high school coach, Bryce [DeSantis], because they’re local,” Dinan Frahm said. “Essentially he goes, ‘I wouldn’t call you for just anybody. I’m calling you to tell you this is a girl who’s got some talent.’”
Dinan Frahm said she’s most excited for the Bombers’ Oct. 3 meet at Lehigh University. The race brings together teams across all divisions, which Dinan Frahm says allows athletes to push themselves in new ways. For Petersen, Lehigh is personal.
“That’s where I ran my first ever 5k,” Petersen said. “To be able to cap off my senior season, running there once more, but for a 6k this time — that’s going to be really cool.”
