Jeffrey Love ’19 Earns All-American Honors

Continuing his successful season this spring, Jeffrey Love ’19 qualified for the 10K at the NCAA DIII Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Geneva, Ohio. He was seeded 20th prior to the race but had an outstanding performance in the final event. Jeffrey, a junior at Connecticut College, placed eighth in the 10K, finishing with a time of 30:37.78. The performance earned Jeffrey outdoor track and field All-America honors.

Heading into nationals, Jeffrey shared that he had been pessimistic about how he was going to do, and his only goal was to finish without coming in last. “I was grateful to race at night, so I didn’t have to deal with the heat that had been beating down on the track all day,” said Jeffrey. “I decided to ease into the race slowly and dropped immediately to the rear of the twenty-person heat. Halfway through the race, I noticed that there were only about ten of us in the lead pack. With about six laps to go, a gap formed between me and the top eight; however, the runner who had been running in second started dropping back to within reach of me. With a mile to go, I decided to pick up the pace there and go for it. I realized there was no way he was going to catch me after the surge I put in and I would be getting my first All-American.”

“It was such an exhilarating feeling crossing that line I forgot how tired I was,” continued Jeffrey. “I couldn’t stop smiling for the next thirty minutes. Being handed that trophy up on the podium showed me how important it is to have trust in the work you have put in, as well as how rewarding it can be to work through your doubts and fatigue to accomplish something great.”

Jeffrey is looking forward to returning in the fall for his senior season. “I’m driven more than ever now to work intensely this summer so that I can go into the fall cross country season even stronger and hopefully finish in the top three.”