For Addison, running was never a solo pursuit. Growing up in Minnesota, she was a well-rounded athlete from fifth grade through her senior year, splitting her time between running, basketball, and softball, but it was always the people beside her that kept her coming back. "I've always had pretty good teammates. I've always loved my teammates growing up," she says. "They're some of my best friends."
That bond, more than any medal or time on a clock, is what carried her out of a successful high school running career and into the search for a program where she could find it all over again.
That search ended at Saint Mary's, though not for the reason most people would guess. Addison had her sights set on nursing, but a campus visit changed the plan entirely. "I really love the campus too, with all the bluffs, and then I also wanted to go into nursing, but when I visited I heard about the PA program, then I interviewed for that, and I got in, so that was like my biggest selling point," she says. Running was the plus, not the deciding factor, but it didn't hurt that Coach Darren Schneider made sure she saw the best of it, driving her through the bluffs herself. "He brought me into the bluffs on a golf cart and everything, showing me the good views," she says.
Between the program and the pitch, Saint Mary's became the easy answer.
Nothing about the jump to college running felt easy, though. Addison expected the transition to be smoother than it was, and cross country humbled her early. "Cross country for me wasn't too good, but then track was definitely better," she says. Piling more miles onto a body that wasn't used to them, on top of labs, practice, and homework stacked back to back, wore her down fast.
"It was just a lot to take in the first couple months," she says. It took most of the season before she felt like she had caught up to the pace of it all, and by the time outdoor track rolled around, that adjustment had turned into real progress.
Getting through that adjustment came down to showing up, even on the days she didn't want to. "It's the hardest just to put on your shoes and get out there, but once you're running, you know, I kind of enjoy it," she says. What made the hardest part bearable wasn't a mindset trick, it was the people running next to her. "My teammates definitely like to help me get on my run, and they make it so much more fun." That same reliance on each other is what she points to as her biggest goal heading into a season with a young, rebuilding roster.
Only three runners returned from last year's cross country team, and Addison sees a real opportunity in it. "I'm hoping I can be a good guide for them," she says, describing the kind of leadership she wants to bring: not command from the front, but pull everyone together so nobody feels left out of it.
Her biggest test as a freshman had nothing to do with a stopwatch. Addison was dealing with low iron during cross country season, and without visible progress to point to, her motivation slipped. "I just kept telling myself that my work would somehow pay off," she says. It wasn't until track that the payoff actually showed up, and once it did, everything about her approach shifted. "That started to really push me to train more and to show up to practice," she says.
The lesson stuck with her well beyond that season, and it's the same one she'd hand to any incoming runner nervous about making the jump to college: "I would just remind them that your work is eventually going to pay off, even if you don't see it right away. I would just say it's eventually going to show."
Looking ahead, Addison's goals stay refreshingly simple: keep breaking her PRs, year over year, in both cross and track, with a particular pull toward the mid-distance events and a hope to stay locked into the relay lineup. But ask her what a successful career actually looks like at the end of it, and times aren't the first thing she brings up. "I think if I keep getting faster every year, keep getting those higher PRs, and also just going out with some great friends, just ending my career knowing I have made my best friends on the team," she says.
When her time at Saint Mary's eventually wraps up, Addison isn't chasing a legacy built on results either. She wants something simpler and, in her mind, more lasting. "I hope they remember me as just being a good teammate, and I hope I left an impact on the team, just like a positive impact, even if it's not success," she says. "I hope they just remember me as like, oh, Addie was super nice, she's always positive."
Addison came to Saint Mary's chasing a program, not a podium, and three years in, that hasn't changed. The PRs will come or they won't, but what she's building alongside them, the friendships, the guidance she's offering a roster full of newcomers, the quiet belief that the work always shows up eventually, is the version of success she actually came here for.
