Freshman has high hopes for first season on Liberty’s cross-country team
College is a weird transition. You move into a new dorm, you meet entirely new people and you get started in a brand-new academic system. Joshua Quigg, a cinematic arts freshman and walk-on runner for the cross-country and track teams, knows this just as well as anyone else.
Though Quigg graduated from Liberty Christian Academy and still has classes in the same building as his high school alma mater, he has experienced the same season of adjustment as every other freshman, both on the track and in the classroom.
“It’s been a step up and a lot of adjustments, but it’s been great meeting (the team),” Quigg said. “Coming in was a little overwhelming. In high school, track was kind of the same thing for four years, and now coming in with all these guys to chase physically and spiritually has been really good.”
For Quigg and many local high school graduates, one of the hardest things to find at a local college is a new identity. Simply becoming a new person in college is a difficult thing when old classmates and friends are constantly around.
“It’s nice and it’s not nice, because you’re trying to form your new identity as a college student and you’re always seeing people you know,” Quigg said. “If you’re having a bad day and you don’t want to meet new people, you always have your old friends to fall back on, but you have an opportunity to completely change your pace too.”
Another adjustment many athletes must make is stepping into a highly skilled and often stronger and faster college team. An athlete has to go from the top of their high school team to the bottom of their college team and start all over again as they work their way back up.
LOCAL — Though originally from Connecticut, Quigg and his family moved to Lynchburg when he was 10 years old.
Quigg was the top runner on his high school team, posting 16:43 for his best cross-country five-kilometer and 4:25 in his best mile run, as well as placing 33rd in the Virginia 4A cross-country championship in 2018.
One thing many new college athletes struggle with is consistency in their practice and in their competition as they find a balance between personal growth and their desire to compete with their stronger teammates.
According to track & field Assistant Coach Isaac Wendland, consistency is one thing he always works on with his athletes.
“Consistency is No. 1, and No. 2 is making that jump from high school to Division I athletics,” Wendland said. “Quigg is a walk-on for us, but he treats his stuff very seriously and I can tell that he mentally has made the jump from high school to college. Normally if mentally you can do it, physically follows right after.”
Wendland said that though Quigg and the team still have a long way to go, he sees a lot of potential in his new athlete.
“He’s been really good, coming from just a home-grown kid,” Wendland said. “Luckily I got to see him progress in high school, and from what he was in high school to his first few weeks here, it seems like he’s already making the adjustment really well. You can tell that he did his stuff over the summer and got in his summer mileage and all that, and I’ve been impressed the first couple of weeks.”
Wendland, Quigg and the cross-country team will be taking on their next meet at Florida Gulf Coast University Saturday, Sept. 7, in the FGCU Invitational. So far the teams are 1-0 on the season after both the men’s and women’s teams won their first home meet Aug. 30.