Norwin grad Rosie Gaydos hoping for success in final season before Saint Francis goes Division III

Rosie Gaydos didn’t know the Northeast Conference had an award for the top freshman cross country runner. Until she won it.

Competing for Saint Francis last season, the Norwin grad placed 19th at the NEC championship meet, which was best among freshmen.

“I really wasn’t expecting that at all,” she said. “The meet right before (the NEC final), I gained a lot of confidence. … The whole season I was struggling a little bit, more mentally, about the sport, and I was not running times that I would have even ran in freshman year of high school.

“I was talking to my roommate (Kenzie Hirt) — the course we were running was Canisius, and it’s super flat — so I was like, I’m not going to do anything crazy. I just want to go 19:30. I’ve run it so many times in high school and know I can hit that time.”

She ran 19 minutes, 34 seconds, which gave her the boost she needed. Then she told Hirt she was going to break 19:00 at the NEC meet. She delivered by running 18:52 to place 19th.

It was the first of many surprises for Gaydos. During outdoor track season, she took up the 3,000 steeplechase. She had tried it on a whim in high school at a meet at Robert Morris, and she floated the idea of competing to Saint Francis coach Doug Hoover.

“I thought it was really fun, and I had no training at all for that,” she said. “I told coach Doug, ‘I’ll do the steeple if you need some people in it. I’ll give it a shot.’ … I think getting over the water barrier was one of the hardest things because we didn’t practice it much. But I thought it was a really fun race, and I thought I might as well try it for track.”

Gaydos ended up placing second in the event at the NEC championships.

There was a third surprise, one that wasn’t nearly as welcome as the other two.

At the end of March, Saint Francis announced it would reclassify from Division I to Division III and join the Presidents’ Athletic Conference. The Red Flash will begin competition in the PAC in the 2026-27 academic year.

A handful of sports — cross country and track and field among them — can compete for PAC championships immediately, but the athletes will not be eligible for all-conference recognition until the school is fully approved for active Division III membership. According to its website, Saint Francis will aim to achieve that by the 2029-30 academic year.

In the meantime, athletes currently on scholarship, such as Gaydos, will retain them through the 2026-27 season. Athletes can keep their scholarships for the 2027-28 year if they forego their final year of athletic eligibility.

For Gaydos, the biggest disappointment isn’t the drop to Division III. It is missing out on the chance to run with her younger brother.

Thomas Gaydos was committed to Saint Francis, but now, with athletic scholarships being cut, Gaydos said, her brother’s plans have changed.

“I think that was probably the main thing that really affected me personally: not being able to run another three years with my brother because we’re really close,” Gaydos said.

But the transition won’t be all bad. She said the shorter road trips — and less time away from campus — could be a benefit as she completes her physician’s assistant program. She also is looking forward to the competition in the PAC. Gaydos already has “scouted” some of the runners and was impressed by their times.

Plus, she has deep roots in the conference: Both of her parents went to Grove City; her older brother, Micah, is a student at Grove City; and her maternal grandfather, John Otto, was a professor there.

But she has one more year as a Division I athlete, so Gaydos will look to finish strong. This season’s NEC meet will be at Hoover’s farm in Tyrone in Blair County, so Gaydos will have some familiarity with the course as she vies for another conference honor.

“I ran 18:00 in indoor track … and I just want to get as close to that as possible (this season) depending on what the courses are like,” she said. “ ‘The Farm’ is where we’re having our conference meet, but I’m not looking for a time there because I know ‘The Farm’ is not a fast course. But I just want to go out and compete, and I think I can get pretty close to the top couple of people.”