College cross country shoeless/minimalist runners

hab46 wrote:

Philippa Asherwood of Midway University(KY) (NAIA) - runs barefoot

Does she run indoors barefoot too?

Yes, she runs indoor and outdoor track barefooted as well.

Ran an outdoor steeplechase race at a meet barefoot a couple seasons ago.

Does MICHAEL PIETERSE of Coastal Carolina University belong on your list?

Other Coastal Carolina athletes are running barefoot:

https://goccusports.com/news/2015/9/15/Women_amp_8217_s_Cross_Country_Ranked_10th_in_the_Southeast_Region_Polls.aspx

This was a while back but I believe Alex Romero ran barefoot

http://www.nmnathletics.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=4200&ATCLID=131625

I don't know if he ran bf in college but he ran a few barefoot road marathons afterwards and was one of the faster people in the bf running community.

A lot of South Africans run XC races barefoot. On the track they wear spikes like everyone else.

This is for the 2020 season. Coastal Carolina starts their season next Friday (September 18th) at the Appalachian State University invitational meet.

Michael did run barefooted in one race last year, it was because his mom Zola was on the coaching staff.

She is not on the coaching staff anymore, so he may not do any more barefoot races under the new staff.

Picture was from 2015. (Kyla van Graan)

In addition to van Onselen, Coastal had two other runners compete in the same race at the Paul Short Run XC meet at Lehigh, Ashley Rulison & Alyssa LeClaire, in bare feet as well.

Rulison is a sophomore and LeClaire graduated.

Same thing with Ashley having new staff after the aforementioned departure of Zola Budd Pieterse. Not sure if she will compete barefoot in a meet this season.

Have an addition to note:

A freshman on the women's team at Northwestern College in Iowa named Katlyn Worse is competing in races this season with Vibram Five Fingers toe shoes.

She has competed in two races in them this season and it looks like she will wear the toe shoes the rest of the season.

BTW, she wore toe shoes for some races the past two seasons running in high school in Minnesota.

I can’t believe this is a real thread.

Since some schools are doing cross country as part of the indoor track season, I am adding indoor (and outdoor) track to this thread.

There was a fast time set over the weekend at an indoor track meet in Kansas by one of the runners on the list.

TAMU Corpus Christi barefoot runner Quin Johnson ran a PB of 17:39.51 in the women's 5000 meter race and won the race by nearly 11 seconds. It was the sixth fastest 5000 time indoors in school history.

It was Johnson's first individual track race win with the Islanders since joining the program from Mesa Community College in 2019.

Found out last night that Midway University barefoot runner Philippa Asherwood opted out of the track season due to COVID related concerns and, according to one of her teammates via direct message, has decided not to run anymore in college and is ending her career. Sounds like she will not compete at NAIA national XC championship meet in April.

I agree. And why did I click on it? Is this some kind of accomplishment that you guys are proud of or something? Running barefoot is about the stupidest thing ever. Those adults that do it are typically slow fat guys that are trying to prove they are tough.

Southland Conference indoor track meet -

Quin Johnson of TAMU Corpus Christi competed in the women's 5000 and 3000 meter races and ran the leadoff leg of the women's distance medley relay at the meet. All barefoot!

She finished 6th in the 5000 with a personal best time of 17:31.2, helped her team set the school record in the DMR with a time of 11:59.85, and finished 14th (13th in her section) in the 3000 with a time of 10:22.52.

Also found another runner competing barefoot on the track, thanks to a Facebook post by a rival distance runner.

Bethel University in Minnesota has a women's track distance runner in freshman Grace Morningstar who has been competing in her races on the track this indoor track season (usually the 3000) in her BARE FEET!

She has not finished high enough to win, is just learning to run barefoot after wearing shoes in high school and enjoying it. Will probably run barefoot in outdoor track races as well.

good news wrote:

I agree. And why did I click on it? Is this some kind of accomplishment that you guys are proud of or something? Running barefoot is about the stupidest thing ever. Those adults that do it are typically slow fat guys that are trying to prove they are tough.

Maybe someday people will say that about anyone who doesn't wear a mask.

Have some additional information on barefoot runner Grace Morningstar of Bethel University in Minnesota.

There was a feature article on her in the school newspaper, Bethel Medium, written by her teammate Lydia Greener.

In the article, it was mentioned that she ran in high school with serious pain in her shins from wearing shoes. She ran her college debut race last month in indoor track with shoes and finished last out of 14 runners.

She found out that she was having no pain by running barefooted, so she started running barefoot a couple weeks ago in a indoor track meet and will run barefoot in cross country and outdoor track from now on.

The article is at the following link

www.medium.com/bethel-bytes/grace-morningstar-beyond-barefoot

Teammate/author's name is Lydia Gessner, not Lydia Greener.

Autocorrect messed it up.

Tough news just out on one of the better runners involved in this thread.

Texas A&M Corpus Christi runner Quin Johnson is out for the college outdoor season due to an illness stemming from a positive COVID test last month, per her latest Instagram page post.

She tested positive in early March following her team's indoor conference meet and the team went on pause for two weeks.

She tried to come back and practice after the pause, but experienced more health issues.

Went to the doctor for an examination and found out that she had a fluid buildup around her heart and lungs as a result of the COVID related issues.

She will have a procedure later to remove the fluid from the heart.

As a result, she is skipping the outdoor track season, will use her eligibility in the 2022 outdoor season.

She hopes to be back in time for the fall cross country season.

Yikes, fluid around the heart doesn't sound good. I hope she's ok