After finishing 22nd at the Salisbury Invitational and tenth at the Bill Fritz Invitational, Lyndsay Boyd has been the leader for the Rowan women’s cross country team in both of their meets so far this season.
Leadership has been at the core of the team’s run of success over the years. Currently, this legacy is being carried on by senior Boyd.
Recently, she was recognized as one of the New Jersey Athletic Conference [NJAC] Runners of the Week; an honor that was humbly received by Boyd.
Boyd’s running journey began as a freshman at Pitman High School in track and field. Simultaneously, Boyd excelled at soccer, both for her school and club teams. Eventually, her improvement as a runner was too noticeable to ignore which prompted her to shift her focus solely to track and later to cross country.
“My track coach and teammates eventually convinced me to give cross country a try the following fall of my senior year,” Boyd said. “I really love running cross country. I like how every course we race on is so different as opposed to running laps around the same track. It always keeps things interesting.”
Her collegiate cross country career started at the Rowan College of South Jersey and would lead her to Rowan University for her sophomore year. At the time, Boyd’s decision just felt right in her heart.
“I decided to transfer to Rowan because it made the most sense academically and financially,” Boyd said. “I knew I wanted to be a science teacher and Rowan had a really great accelerated program allowing me to earn a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences, a master’s degree in STEM education as well as a NJ teaching certification all in five years.”
For all these reasons, Boyd made the move and has not looked back since that fateful decision. Along her journey at Rowan, she has made a multitude of memories. None have stuck out more vividly than her squad’s accomplishment back in 2019.
“My favorite memory was probably winning NJACs as a team in 2019,” Boyd said. “Our coach laid out exactly what each of us needed to do in order to win, and we were able to execute that and come out with a conference title.”
Along the way, Boyd has learned a lot from Head Coach, Derick “Ringo” Adamson, and her other coaches over the years. The lessons proved to apply not just to her cross country endeavors, but to her own life as a whole.
“I’ve learned so much from Rowan cross country,” Boyd said. “The most important thing being the value of hard work. Ringo always reminds us the importance of making sacrifices in order to accomplish our goals, and that is true in every area of life, not just running.”
Truly, Boyd’s experiences with Rowan’s Women’s Cross Country team will remain with her forever. Those memories have proven to be extremely fond, and Boyd remains eternally grateful to have experienced them all along the way.
“I will definitely most remember being a part of such a great team and having great coaches,” Boyd said. “My teammates and coaches have really pushed me and supported me in becoming a much better runner.”
The future for Lyndsay Boyd is certainly bright given her body of work up until this point. As long as she holds the lessons she learned from her squad and coaches close to her heart, she will continue to succeed not only on the cross-country track, but on the track to a happy and successful life.
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