Photo by Austris Augusts on Unsplash
By Matthew Guear, Staff Writer
On Saturday Nov. 20, Susquehanna’s own Marissa Kleman and Kallan Carter competed in the 2021 NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships in Louisville, Kentucky.
They both qualified at the 2021 NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regionals where Carter finished in ninth place overall while Kleman finished in twentieth. Susquehanna as a team finished in fourth out of thirty-one total teams.
Now, it was on to E.P. Tom Sawyer Park in Louisville, Kentucky for the NCAA DIII Championships where Carter and Kleman would be only the fifth and sixth representatives for Susquehanna to ever participate in this prestigious race.
The race started out strong, with nearly 300 participants and both Carter and Kleman found themselves near the back to start off.
They would both pick up their pace and do their best to navigate the sea of runners as the race went on.
Both Kleman and Carter performed well while running the middle 3000 meters, with Kleman especially making up a lot of ground. While it was her first time ever competing in this race, she still handled it like she had been there many times before.
The last 1000 meters is where things would get particularly interesting. Carter dug deep and moved up 24 spots with a miraculous kick on the final 1000 meters to help her finish 125th overall with a time of 22:36.2, which is seventh all-time at Susquehanna.
Kleman finished 244th with a time of 23:33.2.
Carter had an inspirational performance, especially considering she was out for the first two weeks of the season with a hip injury. At the beginning of the season, she thought that competing in Nationals was only a “distant dream” and to see how far she went this year is amazing.
“I feel very happy about my race and my season,” she said. “I’ve never had a Cross Country season like this before and so happy and honored to be running following COVID.”
Carter is going to start the rack season with a newfound confidence that she didn’t have to start the season.
“One thing I need to work on is trusting in myself more during races, putting more faith into my running capacity, because I am stronger than I know,” she said.
Carter and Kleman will look to build on their great season once the winter track season starts up in a few weeks.
