Courtney Frerichs had a tough decision to make.
With one year of eligibility left in her collegiate cross country career, Frerichs could either stay at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and complete a second undergraduate degree, or she could leave her home state and finish her career elsewhere.
After mulling the decision around for a bit, Frerichs decided to leave.
The long process of finding another school to transfer to started in July. Frerichs said the month was hectic with having to file paper work to graduate from UMKC and apply to graduate school, all the while taking visits to prospective universities.
Frerichs’ quest to find a new school ended when she decided to commit to New Mexico on Aug. 10. A week later, she was in Albuquerque attending graduate classes for the community health education program.
“It was an unexpected change but it was much needed,” she said. “I’ve been a lot happier ever since I’ve come to UNM. It’s been great.”
The change couldn’t have gone any better for Frerichs. In her first semester at UNM, she helped lead the women’s cross country team to its first-ever national championship in dominating fashion.
All five of UNM’s runners placed in the top 25 and combined to score 49 points, the lowest total since 1982. The Lobos 80-point victory over runner-up Colorado (149 points) was the fifth-largest margin of victory in NCAA history.
Frerichs was the first Lobo to cross the finish line as she placed fourth overall in 19 minutes, 48 seconds.
“When we saw so many of us in the top we knew we had it, but we didn’t celebrate we knew for sure,” Frerichs said. “It was such a great moment for every person on the team.”
The team camaraderie Frerichs felt the entire season at UNM was something she hadn’t experience in quite some time.
At UMKC Frerichs became one of the better runners in the nation. Over her four years as a Roo, she won six races and was a two-time All American in cross country. Frerichs also took second place in the steeplechase (9:31.36) at the NCAA Championships last year.
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Even with all the individual success at UMKC, Frerichs didn't feel a part of a team.
“At UMKC I was training alone because I was at a different level than anyone else,” she said. “It got kind of hard sometimes.”
There were a couple of reason why Frerichs chose to be a Lobo. First, she knew the team was going to be good after UNM finished third in last year’s NCAAs. The other reason was that assistant coach James Butler had left UMKC to take the same position at UNM.
Frerichs said she didn’t know how she would fit in with the team, but that changed once she started practicing with them.
“I knew there was a chance. I knew that on paper with our PRs and everything that we had a really good team,” she said. “But you never know with a lot of new people how they’re going to mesh and things like that. From the beginning, things took off and I’ve never dream that we would do what we did.”
Thomas Romero-Salas is the culture editor for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @ThomasRomeroS.
