Image Courtesy of George Skovera
Camel of the Edition is a continuous series which seeks to highlight extraordinary Connecticut College athletes who have stood out for their recent performances.
Abby Fernald ‘26 recently was named to the All-NESCAC First-Team in women’s cross-country for finishing fifth overall. The sophomore from Avon, Connecticut played a key role for the Camels as a scoring runner as they achieved program best finishes at the NESCAC Cross-Country Championships and at the NCAA Mideast Regional Championships and qualified for the NCAA DIII Cross-Country National Championships for the first team as a team in program history. Additionally, Fernald clocked the third-fastest 6K time of all-time (21:51) at the College’s home cross-country course in the 2023 Connecticut College Invitational.
Recently, The College Voice caught up with Fernald to learn how she has improved her training to prevent injuries, how challenging herself in the classroom and in athletics helps her achieve balance, and how the team was able to handle stress and pressure to qualify for nationals.
Could you please introduce yourself?
I’m Abby Fernald, a member of the class of 2026. I’m a Psychology and Neuroscience major. I run mid-distance. Outside of the team I [am a part of] Caring Camels. We go to the TA school in Groton and work with people with intellectual disabilities who are transitioning between school and the world. I am also the One Love rep for the cross-country and track team and I’m also on SACC (Student Athletic Advisory Committee.
Talk me through your journey in sports and how and when did you decide to focus on running?
I played a lot of sports growing up. Anything from soccer, lacrosse, hockey, softball, and I wrestled for a year in high school. After I dealt with a hip injury my junior year of high school, it didn’t make sense for me to keep playing hockey because I would’ve gotten injured again so I decided to focus on running and pursue that in college.
What was your recruitment process and how did you end up choosing Conn?
My recruitment process was definitely challenging because I dealt with a lot of injuries in high school so most of my [best] times were from early freshman year. It’s a little difficult to convey yourself to coaches. Like, I promise I have potential but I just haven’t gotten to run uninjured enough to show it. My times were definitely good enough to run in college but just nothing really impressive. Ultimately, I chose Conn because I thought it would be the best balance of academics and athletics. Also, Coach Ned [Bishop] is someone who believes a lot in potential and he wants anyone on the team who wants to be there and be dedicated to the team so having a coach like that where there is not a lot of pressure to perform was also really important to me. So I came to choose Conn because it had the best balance of rigorous academics and a supportive team environment where I could try to hopefully improve a lot.
How was your first cross-country season at Conn like?
My first cross-country season was definitely a big jump from high school to college. I definitely ran a lot more mileage in college than I did in high school. I was really not expecting to be anywhere near the top seven or top ten [on the team] so my big goal coming in was to make the Pre-Nationals Michigan trip which the top ten went on. I immediately went out on our first race and was number three on the team, which is the position I was able to hold on the team for a while. Unfortunately, the Thursday before a home meet I stepped off a curve wrong and fractured my ankle which ended my season but I was definitely proud of how my first season of cross-country went and I was happy with my choice of Conn as a school. It was a good break your leg test.
How was your first indoor season at Conn like?
My first indoor season at Conn was kind of like a transition period because I thought I was going to be a 5k 10k runner and Ned was adamant that I was a miler. It took a while for me to get used to the idea because I had never been a mid-distance runner but I found it enjoyable. It’s more rewarding every workout pushing your body to the max, because you really push the anaerobic edge in mid-distance races, so it’s fun to see how hard you can make yourself run. I had some challenges with injuries mid-season but I was able to come back stronger during the season and was All-New England in the 1K and 4×800 and I had a blast doing it.
How was your first outdoor season at Conn like?
It was a ton of fun because towards the end of the indoor season I had run my first 800m race so knowing that the 800 was something that I could do and have a goal to improve on and it was really fun. It was fun to be able to train with Grace [McDonough ‘26] and Alexa [Estes ‘26] and learn from people who are more experienced at the 800 than me. We had a big focus on the 4×800 in the outdoor season so breaking the school record with Julia [Curan ‘23], Alexa, and Grace was a special moment because I didn’t know if I was going to be able to put down any good times in college. So being able to have a school record by the end of my first year was pretty awesome. It was a testament to everyone’s hard work and to be able to have Julia’s name on the record board at the end of her senior year was really awesome.
What did you do during this past summer to improve and prepare for the cross-country season?
I’d say I adhered more to the training plan than I did the previous summer. My schedule was a lot more flexible in terms of the amount of work I was doing and the time I had for training so it gave me a lot of freedom to focus on what my goals were for the fall. Some of the workouts towards the end of the summer were really rough and had me questioning if my summer training really paid off. But, I just kept in my mind summer miles equals october smiles and that ended up being true for me. Putting in the miles, putting in the work, and making sure I was listening to my body and cross training when I needed to was super important. Also focusing on what my goals are for this season [was important]. Even in the spring, I had in my mind that Nationals for cross country was a possibility for us as a team so just staying focused and having the commitment to other people helped me push through.
What have you done this season compared to in season’s prior that have kept you more injury free?
I think for me a big thing is trusting myself to know what’s right for my body. It took me a long time to learn what I can push through and what I shouldn’t push through and being able to communicate this with Ned. We’ve definitely built a relationship of trust over the past year so he knows that when I tell him “Coach, I’m ending the workout here,” it’s not anything about me not wanting to finish it but just knowing that the rewards can be much greater if I’m healthy than if I injure myself in a workout because I’ve overworking myself.
How have you and the women’s team improved so much over the past season, going from being 10th in the region last year to finishing 3rd this year, placing a program best 4th at NESCACs, and qualifying and competing at DIII Nationals?
I think a big thing is summer training. Ned’s reminded us a few times that this is the best we’ve ever done with summer training. We’re a group that really wants it. We were never supposed to be this good, because for the sophomore group, although Ned expected us to be good runners, he didn’t expect us to be great runners. The amount of growth we’ve had in college has so far yielded results because everyone in this group is very dedicated to what they are doing and they are giving it all for their teammates. It comes down to having a mutual goal and supporting each other because nobody can do it by themselves so you have to have everyone on board. Also, we have 17 freshmen on the team so it was bound to make a positive impact on our ability to have some people score points. We have so much depth that we don’t always need to have a consistent number one because someone else can pick up the slack. Encouraging everyone to be smart about their training and listening to their body was also important because we definitely had less injuries compared to last year.
Were you expecting to break 22 minutes in the 6k for the first time in your career at the home meet? What was this experience like?
I had no idea I was going to do that. My goal going into the season was to break 22:30, and when Ned and I talked about it he told me that this goal might be a little out of reach. I didn’t have any idea during the race that I was running that fast because I’ve gotten in the mindset that the watch comes off when I get to the line. So having the mentality switch that I’m not running a certain pace like in a workout, I’m just running all out. I was just focused on moving up as much as I could during the race and focusing on picking people up in the race and powering up the last hill. Once I saw how close I was to breaking 22 minutes, it was a full out sprint. It is pretty incredible to be third on the all-time list at Harkness and I’m looking forward to running the course four more times and hopefully tak[ing] down the school record.
How do you run in a cross-country race where it is a lot more chaotic than a track race? Do you have a plan going into races and does this vary depending on the course and who you are racing against?
I definitely think the plan varies depending on the course and the field of athletes running the race. I’m definitely aware of who else is racing and where I should be compared to other people. So if a certain person who I know is near me [in ability] I will try to move up and stay with them. For a lot of races, I’m more focused on starting conservatively and picking people off as I go because that gives me momentum that helps me keep going and gets in the heads of other [runners]. My focus has definitely been to try to run an even race and try to pick as many people off during races to get more points for the team. We set a lot of team goals for each meet where for certain meets we would want each person to be a net positive and pass at least one person in the last 1K. At regionals for example, passing one person in the last 1K determined whether or not we got third and definitely had a big impact on our ability to make nationals. That’s who we are as a team, we’re moving up the back and we don’t quit.
How did your team prepare for the NESCAC Championships at Amherst knowing the course was a tough course with rolling hills and mud?
We are just a team that’s going to crush it on the hills. I like to tell our team that we’re tougher than all the other teams out there. On a day like that where it’s hot, it’s a super hilly tough course, and when we [have] falls on the start line it is going to come down to how bad we want it and how bad we are willing to push and what pain we’re willing to endure. You have to be mentally prepared for the hills and not intimidated but just have the confidence of knowing this is going to hurt, but I’ve done this before, and I just need to get up this one hill. Trying to pass people on the hill was also something that was super important because getting passed on a hill is rough in a race so we’re always focused on not just passing people on the hills but also running through the hill and pushing up the crest to create a gap.
Tell me about your experience racing at the NESCAC Championships on a tough course at Amherst where you placed 5th and claimed All-NESCAC First Team honors. Were you expecting to place this high and the team to finish a program best finish?
I think I was expecting to be on the brink of All-NESCAC’s. I was thinking maybe I would be on the lower end of second team, although first team was always the goal. It was definitely a tough start to the race because as soon as the race started, I could see Alsacia [Timmerman ‘26] fall and I was like “shoot.” But, I got out well and I was trying to tell Ned how everyone had fallen at the first corner. Someone stepped on the back of my shoe and I almost lost my shoe. From there it was just like stamp your foot down and get in a good position in the first K. Things definitely spread out a lot in my group because some people moved up and some people fell off the back. Right after the mile mark I could see Stephnie [Ager] from Wesleyan up a little ahead of me and I wasn’t running with anyone so I told myself I need to maintain my position and stay focused in my position and see what I have left to give in the last K. It was definitely a grueling race because it was unseasonably warm so by the second loop I was getting a little dizzy. I kept telling myself I need to keep grinding and finish the race. Once you’re in that position of just maintaining your position to finish first-team [All-NESCAC] you don’t want to lose that so I was really focused on that. I was definitely [excited] for the high team place because I could tell very well where I was going to finish but it was really hard for me to know if the team was going to finish well because of how the race started. It was definitely impressive to finish fourth in the NESCAC because it is so competitive so it was definitely impressive beating so many historically strong teams.
How did your team deal with the expectations and stress of having to place high at regionals to be able to qualify for DIII Nationals as a team?
Lauren [Hino ‘24] had us watch a motivational video from before the race talking about how underdogs are hungry dogs which we used as a team slogan. We really wanted this for ourselves and for Ned because he had never gotten to bring a team to nationals. We were definitely a bubble team going in because nobody expected us to get third in the region. It’s hard to see [media] say Conn is probably going to finish 6th in their region and not go to nationals. We weren’t supposed to be 3rd in everyone else’s opinion so being able to just go out, run our race, and be proud of where we finished no matter what relieved pressure. [After the race], being able to have that special experience of knowing almost immediately that we were going to nationals pretty much immediately was super special. I didn’t have my best race at regionals which was a little disappointing but to be able to have five of us on the All-Region team and being able to celebrate and hug each other right in that moment was really awesome. [It was the] best post race feeling ever.
What was the experience competing at Nationals this year?
I think that the overwhelming goal was that this is just for fun. At regionals, the overwhelming goal was that we wanted to make nationals but we wanted the next one to just be for fun. We’ve obviously been working really hard all season but with a young team it’s really hard to perform at nationals because none of us have competed that far into a season and you’re already so tired when championship season starts so going an extra week is a new challenge. I think we finished right around where we were projected to, which is a little disappointing. I’d say personally I had expectations of doing a little better but I had been struggling with my iron levels towards the end of the season, which impacted my performance. But it was overall an incredible experience to be there with the team and hopefully we’ll send one next year.
How does what you are studying/majoring in impact your sport?
I think psychology is definitely related because of how much running is a mental sport in requiring you to be committed to what you are doing. If you’re not in a good mindset, that can instantly ruin your race because the second you let your mental thoughts creep in that can ruin your race. So just knowing the U-shaped arousal levels in trying to stay calm and keep myself at the optimal level of stress both in academic and athletic life is important. Obviously, I’m 100% committed to my classes but if you get too stressed in academics it becomes an all consuming thing. Like, I like to dedicate my Saturdays to not doing homework so I can be committed to my sport and academics every other day. I would say running and my major are definitely challenging. But, I think the ability to challenge yourself in the classroom definitely translates to my ability to challenge myself on the course or on the track.
How has your sport helped you in your academic career and in life?
Sports are just such an important thing because it teaches you how to be committed to something, how to collaborate with people, and it is a team effort. Also, being able to have your two different times where you’re focused on academics and athletics when you need to be is great. You get the endorphins which helps you to be more focused on your school work after practice. I think it’s good to learn the time management [skills] of being a college athlete because it’s definitely a huge time commitment. Being able to balance that with your school work and still be successful in both areas is really important for the future and joining the workforce. You want to be able to have the organizational skills and the time management skills that I think having to balance college athletics and academics creates. It can be a big factor to interact with others. As an employer, you know an athlete is going to be driven to achieve their goals. As long as you are working somewhere where you’re aligned with the values, you’re going to want to compete to do the best work you can do.
What are your hopes for the indoor and outdoor season ahead?
I definitely say on the team level for both seasons, placing higher than we did at New England’s last season is a big team goal. Another big team goal is to try to get our DMR team to nationals in our indoor season. Personally, I have my eyes on setting some sort of school record. I definitely want to break 5 in the mile, see what I can [run] in the 3k, and go from there. For outdoor, I would love to maintain my spot on the 4×800 team and improve my school record. Last season we were ninth in the country for DIII so improving on that is a goal. I’ll probably be focusing a lot on the 800 and the 1500 outdoors. An individual goal may be to try to make nationals as an individual which is dependent on my ability to stay uninjured.
Note: This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
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