Sept. 15, 2002

By Sam Walker

There was a crystal clear moment during Anne Bersagel's freshman year that made it all make sense. One might call it an epiphany, but whatever it was it made her feel fortunate to have ended up at Wake Forest. Until that moment, Bersagel says she had not totally committed. Until that moment, she was still adjusting to the rigors student-athletes face, still feeling her way though the season and still trying to find that all-important line of communication between coach and runner. And then it just hit her: Wake Forest was the perfect fit.

"I was very critical in my college search process, and even when I arrived here, I wasn't ready to just accept everything I heard," Bersagel said. "Now I have complete faith in this program, and I think it was more important (for me) that I came in with a critical outlook.

There was a meet at Stanford last year, a 5K, and after that race I guess I just kind of looked around and realized how much this program has done for me and how lucky I was to be a part of the team. I finished my race, was pretty happy with my performance and realized what a great experience this all is. People are helping you every way they can. The university bends over backward to allow you to play your favorite sport. I don't know how it could get any better than that."

But as of late it has gotten better. Bersagel, now a sophomore, has started to come into her own. She was named ACC cross country performer of the week on Tuesday, Sept. 4, after she took first place on the women's side of the Mountaineer Open with a time of 17:27.40 in the 5,000-meter race.

"She is off to a fast start, and she's probably a little ahead of where I thought she would be," Coach Annie Schweiter Bennett said. "Anne is very dedicated and focused on her goals. She wants to be an All-American in cross country, and that's a very realistic goal for her. Her time (at the Mountaineer Open) was slightly faster than that recorded by Janelle Kraus, who is pretty much a legend around Wake Forest and has been an All-American in cross country a couple of times. I was a little surprised, but knowing Anne's drive and focus and from watching her workouts wasn't really surprised."

Bersagel was the first of seven Demon Deacon runners to finish in the top 10 and led Wake to a first-place finish overall. She almost seemed embarrassed to talk about the fact she placed first and instead focused on how well the team was able to compete overall so early in the season. The Mountaineer Open was the first meet of the year.

"I was just really happy with the way we finished as a group," Bersagel said. "We had strong workouts together, and even when we first arrived we could tell there was something special going on. The atmosphere on the team is so electric. Everybody is so pumped about the season, and I guess we felt like we have some unfinished business from last year to take care of. Now, it's a lot more competitive and a lot more fun."

Bersagel came to Wake Forest from Greeley, Col. More than 1,300 miles separate her home from the Wake Forest campus, and if it were not for an interesting twist of fate, Bersagel would have possibly never heard of Wake Forest University. After leading her high school team to the 2000 state title, a mutual friend of both Bersagel and Bennett, Coach Scott Hall of the University of Northern Colorado, helped make the necessary introductions.

"Anne went to church with my husband's college coach, and he is the one who gave us her name," Bennett said. "I respect him tremendously. He just said that he believed this kid had it, and I feel very fortunate she came here. Academics are very important to her, and she was looking at Yale, Cornell, Harvard. But he (Hall) helped sell me that I would be somebody who could pull some more things out of her. I think we communicate really well, and I hope she feels the same."

" I guess he must have said something to Annie, and he mentioned Wake Forest to me," Bersagel said. "I had never heard of Wake Forest or Winston-Salem. I looked up some information about it, received a phone call from Annie, and Scott thought Annie and I would get along together really well together. I came out for a visit and enjoyed it here. All my experiences before had been with large state schools, so it was a different experience for me. But I was really sold on the academics here. That was definitely my most important factor in deciding to come here."

Bersagel, who recently declared a political science major, needed her freshman year to adjust to a new city, a new routine and a new level of competition. She earned a couple of first-place finishes last spring in the 5,000-meter run at the Georgia Tech and Duke Invitationals and earned USTCA Academic All American honors. But by the end of year, Bersagel realized she had found her niche and entered the 2002 cross country season ready to focus on becoming an All-American.

" What's unique about her is her calmness, her confidence, her maturity," Bennett said. "It's just (she has) a personality that comes with being a successful individual, especially where she is going and what she wants to do as a track athlete. She's pretty confident of who and what she is. I can aid her as a coach in the design of her workouts and putting them together. We don't do too much race strategy because she knows her body and knows when she needs to go out and when not to. We talk about it, but most of the time she's right on, and that is a sign of a successful distance runner. She possesses a lot of confidence."

It is still early in the season and after Wake Forest's Alumni Invitational on Sept. 14, the team will be on the road and into the meat of the schedule. In November, the Southeast Region Championships and NCAA Championships may find Bersagel and Wake Forest running right along with, or perhaps in front of the best in the country. Bersagel feels Bennett does a good job keeping in perspective for the team the big picture of athletics and academics, and right now there seems to be something out there for the Demon Deacons to accomplish.

"We're learning to run in a pack together, and the quality of the team this year is going to allow us to do a lot more pack running and not be so strung out," Bersagel said. "I look forward to that, especially at some larger meets. I really feel like we're going to turn a few heads. But it is exciting to be in this program. You can tell we're building a program here. So Wake Forest really is a gem that hasn't been discovered yet."