If the Oregon women’s cross country team ever finds itself under attack, Bria Wetsch will be there to save the day.
“I like to test my kung fu skills” in my spare time, the Duck sophomore says, a smile on her face, before breaking down and laughing – “It’s more of a fun thing. I just call myself a ninja.”
Her second life developed from her common cold-weather attire.
“It mostly started because a lot of times when it’s cold outside I’m usually all dressed in black, black tights, a black shirt and I’ll see Maurica (Powell, a volunteer assistant coach) and she’ll be like, ‘Oh, it looks like you’re a ninja today.’ And I was like, ‘Yep, that’s the way I roll.’”
Cold weather is nothing new for Wetsch. Even though she was born in Durham, N.C., her family moved to Chaska, Minn., just outside Minneapolis, when she was two. She played soccer when she was younger, but started running in middle school when she realized she was pretty good.
Wetsch won the state cross country championship her senior year at Holy Family High School before going on to place eighth at the national high school cross country national championships. In the spring, she won the Nike Outdoor Nationals 2-mile title. Despite all the individual success, it’s a 150-mile summer workout that Wetsch remembers best.
“Our team did a run from Minneapolis up to Duluth and it took us like three or four days. We did it kind of like a relay,” she said. “We’d run like six or 10 miles … and then the rest of the team would meet us in a van at the next stop and then people would get out and run. We’d stay at camp sites and we just had a really good time bonding.”
Despite the fact that there were several strong programs nearby, including the University of Minnesota and the University of Wisconsin, Wetsch never really considered them.
“I kinda wanted to get out of the Midwest,” she said. “I knew that I wanted to go to a school that was farther away.”
She said she considered a couple schools on the East Coast, including Villanova, but knew Oregon felt right, athletically and academically, and committed to be a Duck the fall of her senior year of high school.
“I really liked Oregon because of the running community and everyone knows about running,” she said. “Also, they have a good business school.”
Oregon head coach Vin Lananna said he and his staff were struck by her attitude.
“I was impressed by how confident she was in herself,” he said in an e-mail interview.
Right before Wetsch arrived at Oregon, however, she had a problem in her toe. It turned out to be a stress fracture that kept her out most of the season.
“That was frustrating because it was my first year in college and I wanted to make an impact on the team but I wasn’t able to,” she said.
She came back in time for the Pacific-10 Conference Championships, but wasn’t at full strength.
“We determined that it would benefit her to get some racing experience,” Lananna said. “She did a remarkable job, despite the limited training.”
After the season, they found out that she had actually broken her toe, so the coaches decided to redshirt her to get her healthy for the cross country season.
She came back, had a strong fall camp and has impressed in her first two meets so far, placing fourth for the team each time. She finished 21st overall at the Dellinger Invitational and ninth at last weekend’s Hodges Invitational. Her next race will be the Pac-10 Championships next Saturday in Corvallis.
Fully healthy, Wetsch is excited for the rest of the season, but isn’t ready to look too far into the future.
“We’d like to make the NCAA Championships and after that we’ll take it from there,” she said.
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