Wildcats freshmen part of Team USA lineup competing in women’s U-20 race in British Columbia, marking second straight time college program has been represented by a pair of athletes at event

By Landon Negri for DyeStat

It’s a cross country season that has gone on and on, stretching into February and past the indoor-to-outdoor transition to the track and field season.

Yet, Kalea Bartolotto and Abby Osterlund wouldn’t have it any other way.

The Northwestern cross country teammates embark on a unique experience this week as they represent Team USA and compete Saturday in the women’s U-20 race at the fourth edition of the Pan Am Cross Country Cup around the Jack Nicklaus-designed Valley Course at Bear Mountain Resort in Langford, B.C.

And while other runners in the country are ready to dive head first into the outdoor track season, Bartolotto and Osterlund are embarking on a trip of a lifetime.

“I’m so excited,” Bartolotto said. “This is going to be one of the coolest things I’ll ever do, traveling to a different country with my best friend.”

How this set up for the freshmen was a bit of a perfect storm.

Northwestern competes in the fall in cross country but does not field a full track and field team. That meant the kind of flexibility in scheduling you might not have in a program immersed in wrapping up its indoor track season.

The support and focus of first-year head cross country coach Jill Miller has also been a plus. In a unique situation like that at Northwestern, the year-round focus on cross country plays right into the concept of running a championship cross country race on the last day of February.

“Having a coach that has that mindset means it hasn’t been as difficult as it might be for other athletes,” Bartolotto said.

And the other aspect to this?

You have to be good.

In order to qualify for Team USA for the women’s U-20 race Saturday, an athlete had to finish in the top six Jan. 18 at the USATF Cross Country Championships at San Diego’s Mission Bay Park.

Bartolotto finished third in the 6,000-meter race that day on the rolling, seaside hills in 23 minutes, 9.5 seconds. Osterlund picked up the last qualifying spot in sixth at 23:24.9.

“I think going into the race, I didn’t necessarily have expectations,” Osterlund said. “We had just come out of (NCAA) regionals and had a month or two break. I didn’t have expectations. I didn’t know how we would fend for ourselves in the field.

“I think we went into it with the mindset that there was no pressure or expectations.”

Joining the Northwestern duo in British Columbia will be San Diego race winner Brooke Rauber of Tully, N.Y., a high school junior who won in 22:11.0, as well as runner-up Rayna Stanziano, a freshman at St. Mary’s in Moraga, Calif.

Fourth-place finisher Bailey Brinkerhoff of Utah State and fifth-place finisher Sophia McDonnell of Bradley round out the women’s U-20 roster for Team USA in Canada, which has won the past three team titles in the age group, including sweeping the podium in 2018 in El Salvador.

No American athlete has earned a medal in the women’s U-20 race in the previous three editions of the event, with the highest finish a fifth-place result by current University of Washington standout Katie Rainsberger in 2015 in Colombia.

Both Bartolotto and Osterlund are beyond excited for the chance to represent their country, which begins Wednesday, when they were scheduled to arrive in western Canada.

It will mark the second straight edition of the Pan Am Cross Country Cup where Team USA features a pair of Northwestern athletes in the women’s U-20 race, following Amanda Davis and Hannah Tobin two years ago in El Salvador.

And despite their friendship, the two took very different paths to this point.

Bartolotto grew up in Northern California and ran cross country and track for four years for Granada High in Livermore. As a senior, she helped Granada to a second-place team finish at California’s Division 2 state championship, 13 points behind winner Claremont and just a hair off qualifying for the Nike Cross Nationals meet in Portland, Ore.

Ironically enough, that would’ve given her a little bit of a blueprint for this weekend with a championship race in the Pacific Northwest.

“It’s so weird – super random,” Bartolotto said. “I’m a little worried about how cold it’s going to be.”

Osterlund is quite familiar with cold, having grown up in the shadow of Northwestern in Evanston, Ill.

Unlike Bartolotto, Osterlund played soccer and didn’t run until her junior year, and she made it to the Illinois state meet her senior season at Evanston Township. After competing in cross country last fall as a freshman at Northwestern, she decided to redshirt the indoor season.

“I started running cross country my junior year,” she said. “Even then, I wasn’t as super serious about it until my senior year of high school.”

For Osterlund, there is still a learning curve to cross country – remember, she just completed her third season – but there are also positives to being so young in her career.

“I think in some aspects, I’m kind of at a disadvantage because I haven’t had as many years of training,” she said. “I’m still learning about things. In other aspects, I’ve avoided burnout, and to this day, racing still excites me. And I haven’t had overuse injuries, which I know a lot of girls deal with.”

Competing in the Pan Am Cup has also meant changing up a normal track and field training schedule. Bartolotto said she has used the indoor season as a way to train for the Pan Ams, including the indoor personal best of 17:29.89 she ran in winning the women’s unseeded 5,000 meters Feb. 14 at the David Hemery Valentine Invitational at Boston University.

“I definitely have been thinking a little about that and watching videos of the course,” Bartolotto said. “Definitely going from a flat and banked track to a grass course full of hills, it will be interesting.”

Osterlund has been training, too, indoors – or outdoors when the weather allows.

“We’ve been pretty lucky with a mild winter,” she said.

So, off they go, perhaps with a chance to see sights around Victoria, B.C., and enjoy a cross country trip – geographically, and athletically.

Again, the trip of a lifetime.

“I get to be with my best friend all the time,” Osterlund said.