In October, senior Ellie Kessler verbally committed to run cross country and track at Colorado College, which has a Division III running program.
“I wasn’t planning on running in college,” Kessler said. Over the summer she visited Colorado College and the running coach showed her around. She said, “Colorado College was always my top choice,” she said. “I was going to [apply early decision] there anyway.” The running coach supported her application.
Kessler said that a big reason she chose to go to school in Colorado is the location and atmosphere. “I’m a really outdoorsy person and so I want to be surrounded by the mountains and be able to hike and backpack,” she said.
Colorado College has a block schedule in which students take only one class at a time, which runs three hours a day for three and a half weeks. These three-and-a-half-week blocks are separated by five-day breaks. This was part of Colorado College’s appeal to Kessler, who said that, in the five-day breaks, people typically go backpacking or skiing. “I really wanted to have that flexibility,” she said.
“Sometimes running coaches just look at numbers, and use that to judge who is going to be a strong applicant and who will benefit their team,” said Anthony Belber, head coach of the GDS cross-country and track teams. “But there are a lot of subtle things that coaches don’t always see.”
Belber said that he sent a few emails to college coaches to explain that, at GDS, “we don’t have a track to train on or we’re not a public school so we don’t go to regional meets, county meets and state championship meets in the same way that other regions do.” But he thinks that the coaches were already impressed with Kessler’s performance. “I don’t think my emails made much of a difference,” Belber said.
Belber also spoke highly of Kessler’s potential. “Ellie’s performances have the potential to be even stronger than they already are if we were running at a higher level later in the season,” he said.
Kessler was selected to the all-Independent School League team three times, the all-state first team once and the all-RunWashington postseason team once. She also helped lead GDS to Independent School League titles in 2022 and 2023.
Kessler said that she started running in fifth grade, and ran throughout middle school. “I was thinking about applying to GDS and I came and visited,” she said.“I went on a run with the team and it was super fun and it definitely made me want to go here.”
“She works so hard and she’s definitely gotten faster,” Amelia Oscherwitz, senior and cross country co-captain said.
“She has grown in her confidence and her drive and desire to push herself and compete at a high level,” Belber said.
Belber said that Kessler’s recruitment “models for all the other athletes on the team that your running career doesn’t have to just be limited by what you do while you are wearing green and white at GDS.”
Kessler said that her experience running at GDS has been great. “The team is just so amazing,” she said. “It’s the most supportive environment I’ve ever been in.”
“She is a really big role model and leader for the team,” said freshman runner Shira Wenthe. “She works really hard and she makes everyone feel welcome.”
Oscherwitz agreed, calling Kessler “an amazing teammate and leader.”
“The team has a nice environment that sustains itself, where the older runner mentors the younger runners,” Belber said.
As co-captains of the GDS cross-country team, Oscherwitz said that she and Kessler “just try to foster a sense of community of all the girls during the cross-country season.”
“Being surrounded by people who I love and I know love me and are always there for me has made me the best runner I can be,” Kessler said.