Front Runner

By: David Rung, director of athletics media relations

Joseph Westrick ’20, didn’t come to Erie with his sights set on becoming the most decorated runner in Gannon crosscountry history. But in four years with the Golden Knights, Westrick, 21, has run off a string of firsts in program history to achieve just that.

Westrick, who recently graduated with an environmental engineering degree, earned the NCAA’s first conference championship as a senior in 2019 after qualifying as a junior. He also became the first individual to win a PSAC title and the conference Champion Scholar award – given to the runner with the highest cumulative grade-point average at the championship meet – in the same season in the league’s history.

Two weeks later, he became Gannon’s first three-time all-region performer with a fourth-place finish at the Atlantic Region championships, earning him a spot at the national meet for the second consecutive season. There, he became the first Gannon student-athlete in any sport to earn the prestigious NCAA Elite 90 award, which goes to the top overall GPA in the championship field.

Westrick won additional honors, including CoSIDA Academic AllAmerica laurels and two PSAC Top 10 awards, both of which recognize student-athletes who excel in both the classroom and their athletic arena.

For Westrick, the work that went into achieving low times and high grades went hand-in-hand.

“I think that the two suit each other well,” he said. “(Running) takes a lot of time, so that forces you to be diligent in how you organize your time. I don’t know if I would have done this well in school if I didn’t have something that forced me to structure my time as well.”

His sophomore season, Westrick won individual titles at three of Gannon’s first four races of the year. A 17thplace finish in a large field at the Greater Louisville Classic ramped up the expectations, and he cruised to first-team finishes at the PSAC Championships (11th) and Atlantic Region Championships (19th).

He started off his junior year with four straight top-three finishes, then ran the fastest 8k time of his career to finish 19th out of more than 300 runners at a preview race of the national championship course.

That was followed up by a fourthplace finish at PSACs – then the best finish by a Golden Knight in 11 years in the conference – and a fifthplace finish at the regional meet that would secure a bid to nationals, where he would finish higher than any other runner from the PSAC in 81st.

Gannon cross country coach John Carrig has watched as Westrick’s career progressed.

“I think his junior year, he broke through,” Carrig said. “He’s the kind of kid that has a goal, puts his mind to it, and goes after it. His junior year, his goal was to make nationals, and he just worked all year and he did it. His senior year, his goal was to win PSACs, and he did it.”

Westrick clocked three of his first five 8k races of the year under 26 minutes and continued strong in the postseason, closing the final 1,000 meters to win the PSAC title by more than nine seconds.

Two weeks later, he was fourth at the regional championships, locking up his second bid to nationals. He learned two days later that his teammate Ryan Garich had also earned an at-large bid to the NCAA, giving the program its first year of multiple national qualifiers.

The progress the team has made may be the accomplishment Westrick is most proud of. “I always felt that if you set a good tone for the group, the group is going to follow,” he said.

In both of his final two seasons, the Knights finished eighth in the team standings at regionals, the best in program history.

“We had nine freshmen on the team this year. They got to see what you have to do to get there, and they bought in,” Carrig said. “Joe is one of those kids that you wish you had one of every year, a whole team of them. You can’t always be that fortunate, but he showed them what you can do.”

HIGH HONORS FOR GANNON ATHLETES

Joseph Westrick isn’t the only athlete being celebrated this spring.

Westrick is celebrated as the first Gannon student-athlete and only the 23rd PSAC student-athlete and third male to earn the prestigious NCAA Elite 90 award. The award honors the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average at the finals site of each of the NCAA’s 90 championships. The individual must be at least a sophomore both academically and athletically and either qualified for the national championships as an individual or as part of the designated squad size in a team sport.

Lydia Lukomski picked up the Elite 90 honor just three weeks later as the Gannon volleyball team made its second appearance at the NCAA Division II Elite Eight in the past three seasons. B

oth Lukomski and Westrick also earned the PSAC’s version of the honor, the PSAC Champion Scholar award, during the 2019-20 academic year.

They joined Ethan Bennett (Men’s Golf), James Randall (Men’s Soccer) and Joey Deemer (Men’s Swimming and Diving) to give Gannon five Champion Scholar awards in the abbreviated calendar – the most in the conference.

Sixteen different Gannon student-athletes have won the Champion Scholar award a total of 22 times since the award was initiated during the 2011-12 academic year.