“Why not?”
That’s what Quinnipiac women’s cross country head coach Carolyn Martin asked her squad at the start of the 2024 campaign.
“We kind of started off the season with why not?” Martin said. “That was kind of our thing. Why not us? Why can’t we do more?”
Quinnipiac women’s cross country came out of the 2023 season as back-to-back MAAC champions, cementing themselves as one of Quinnipiac’s most consistent teams.
The Bobcats are looking to become the first MAAC team to win three consecutive conference titles since Iona, who won six-straight from 2016-2021.
“It would be great to repeat as MAAC champions, Iona’s gonna be very strong this year so we’re not gonna take that lightly,” Martin said. “(We’re) just trying to continue to look at it as we’re going to try to keep improving as a team.”
The Bobcats were ranked No. 1 in the MAAC Preseason Coaches’ Poll, even with the additions of Sacred Heart and Merrimack this fall.
Merrimack finished 30th out of 37 teams in last year’s Northeast Regional finals, while Sacred Heart finished 31st.
“I think it’s always a privilege to be picked as a team that’s going to be in the hunt for a title,” Martin said. “Does it put a target on our back? Absolutely, but it’s a privilege to be able to have that target.”
In the 2024 Northeast Regional Poll, Quinnipiac was ranked No. 10, with a chance to accomplish something historic.
Quinnipiac has its essential runners from the championship team returning for 2024, graduate students Corrine Barney and Alessandra Zaffina, who both finished in the top five to aid the Bobcats in their MAAC Championship meet, as well as junior Rachel St. Germain who finished sixth overall.
The Bobcats have already started the season off on the right foot, placing first in the Stony Brook Season Opener for the second-straight year, with graduate student Lauren Selkin leading the Bobcats on the day finishing third, along with St. Germain and Zaffina rounding out the top five.
“They’re all awesome kids, and I think they all have a unique personality that they bring to the team, and they have different styles of racing which I think is really important,” Martin said.
The main reason why women’s cross country has been so successful for nearly two decades begins with Martin, who has been with the Bobcats coaching staff for 20 years — 15 as the head coach.
“She’s an amazing person, this is my fifth year and I’m so grateful to have been with her for five years,” graduate student Corinne Barney said. “She makes us all feel welcomed, and supported, and during preseason we’d go to her house and she’d barbecue for us, she’s awesome, she’s the best.”
Martin, a three-time conference Coach of the Year, has helped women’s cross country grow into a regionally-known program.
“Knowing that we’ve won two times in a row, I think that really shows what we can do,” Barney said. “Going forward, that will really help us become motivated for the upcoming season.”
The Bobcats will be back on the track this weekend when they travel up to the site of the 2024 MAAC championship for the Jasper Fall Invite.
“I think our goal is to do something we’ve never done before and raise ourselves as a team in the region, nationally get us known a little more,” Martin said.
