For the first time in her college career, Aubrey Wingeart will be running alone.

As Waynesburg University’s only national qualifier, Wingeart will fly the flag for the Jackets at tomorrow’s NCAA Division III national tournament. Wingeart won’t be running alongside any of her teammates, but she’ll have plenty of support both in Greene County, and Louisville, Kentucky. 

Joining Wingeart on the trip to Louisville, where she arrived Thursday afternoon during a rainstorm, are head coach Chris Hardie, assistants Michelle Cross and Kristen Stone as well as student assistant Kat Fair. In addition, there will also be 10 runners making the trip to  support their teammate. 

“[The support] means a lot to me,” Wingeart said. “It’s a long drive. They’re taking basically their Friday and Saturday to come watch me run.”

After Wingeart officially qualified the day after regionals, Hardie’s goal was to get to Louisville as fast as possible so she could get a feel for the course. It’s the same course where Waynesburg’s last two national qualifiers, Emily and Katie Latimer, ran in the 2016 tournament. For Hardie, this year’s race has a similar feel to the last time he coached a national qualifier. 

“I think that Aubrey’s definitely training [at] that same type of level [previous qualifiers] were at,” he said. “The difference that I see with Aubrey is she seems to be cutting time every week, so she’s pacing really well right now. So I’m anxious to see what will happen Saturday.” 

It’s been a busy November for the super sophomore. Wingeart has had to focus on her team winning a Presidents’ Athletic Conference Championship, which it did Nov. 2, as well as individually qualifying for nationals with a top 10 at last week’s Mideast regionals. Now, she’s made it to the dance, and although her primary objective for 2019 is accomplished, she still feels a bit of pressure headed into her final race of the year. 

“I do have goals, and about 10 people are coming to watch me run six hours away,” Wingeart said. “So I kind of want to perform well for them. I don’t want them to come watch me run a bad race.”

Hardie mentioned what a few of those specific objectives are.  

“We’ve talked about what it would take to get close to the school record on this course and what All-America [possibilities] look like,” Hardie said. “But those are long-term goals.”

Overall, Saturday will be a fitting end to Wingeart’s 2019 campaign, and the culmination of a something that’s been on her mind since she was in high school.

“To know that she set this goal out a few years ago and to be able to accomplish it, that’s going to be important for all of us,” Hardie said.  “To watch her even just step on the line and know how important that is to her, we’re excited for that.”