Acacia M. O'Connor Sports Editor

Like most Vassar student-athletes, the men’s and women’s cross-country teams do all that they can to stay in shape and improve their skills during the off-season. For most cross-country teams, running is a three-season sport, ensuring that the players continually improve and compete throughout the academic year. Unfortunately, this is not true at Vassar, where indoor and outdoor track are not recognized varsity sports.

In the history of track and field at Vassar College, today’s club status of track just doesn’t fit. Vassar was the host of the first ever women’s track and field events. Cross-country was made a varsity sport in 1979, ten years after the College went coeducational. Since then, Vassar runners have become increasingly competitive without partner indoor and outdoor track programs, which bolster the program of most competitor schools.

There are two major differences between club status and varsity status. The first and most obvious is funding. The limited budget allotted by the Vassar Student Association (VSA) does not even begin to cover the expenses of equipment, travel, and race entry fees for the team; the players themselves must cover these costs. Each athlete must be responsible for getting to meets, when varsity athletes normally relax and mentally prep on a bus trip.

The second difference is more tragic. Despite the successes of the men’s and women’s track team, which boasts three players who have qualified for the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Championships this spring, Vassar athletes are often turned away from meets because of their non-varsity status. They will not be allowed to compete in the ECAC Championship meet, which would usually be the culmination of the spring track season.

“As a club sport, we have had an enormous amount of success that even many varsity sports have not,” said team captain Schuyler Schuster ’05. “Enormous” is an understatement. This spring, five track team members broke school records. Schuster broke the 10,000m record with a time of 32:44.

The star of the women’s side is Nilly Buchsbaum ’06. Buchsbaum has run ECAC qualifying times in the 5K twice this season, the best of which set a personal and school record.

Patrick Murray ’06 also set a school record in the 3000m steeplechase on his first try, and then knocked 25 seconds off his time. Along the way, he qualified for the ECAC Championship and just missed the NCAA National Provisional Qualification time. Other records have been set by Chris Lewis ’08 in the 400m hurdles and by Christine Schleppegrell ’08 in the 1500m.

While their success is something to be proud of, the student-athletes and coaches alike are frustrated at not being able to compete for the championship and the treatment they receive based on their club-status. The athletic department does treat the track team as a program by sending out brochures to prospective student-athletes. However, recruiting brochures can only go so far. High school students who excel at track often discount Vassar because it lacks a full three-season program.

“Distance running is a three-season sport,” said Schuster. “Without a varsity track program, many high school runners will not even look at our cross-country program, making recruiting a very challenging effort.”

According to players and coaches involved with the team, granting track varsity status will add not only to the success of the program, but to the College as a whole.

Student-athletes see gaining varsity status as an opportunity to represent the College in ways they are unable to do now.

“Our record of success will only be improved by the funding and resources afforded to a varsity team, and such success can only reflect well on Vassar as an institution,” said Schuster.

Ron Stonitsch, head coach of the varsity cross-country teams, believes that adding track as a varsity sport will help increase the much sought-after student body diversity. According to the National Collegiate Athletic Association, track is the second most popular sport for African-American males and females in the United States, after football for men and basketball for women.

“Adding track makes sense for expanding our pool of applicants,” said Stonitsch. “Many athletes of color do not see Vassar as an option for their track aspirations, so they are going to [schools such as] Amherst, Swarthmore, Haverford, [and] Oberlin. I have heard countless statements like ‘I'm sorry Coach, Vassar is great and you are nice too, but I want to run track.’”