Purcellville, Va. — Tuscarora High School senior Emma Wolcott has made a commitment to continue her running career at the University of Virginia beginning in the 2018-2019 academic year. Wolcott will run distance events for both the cross country and track teams.
“It feels great to be committed, and I’m so excited to be going to UVA,” the 5-foot-3 Wolcott said. “I’m ready to make the most of college.”
[adrotate banner=”19″]In college, Wolcott will join the Division I Cavaliers cross country team, which finished seventh in the NCAA Southeast Regional in 2017. Since taking over the program in 2012, head coach Todd Morgan has led UVA to five top ten finishes at the Southeast Regional championships, including winning Southeast Regional titles in 2013 and 2015.
“I hope that I can contribute to the team by becoming a scoring runner at postseason meets,” said Wolcott, who will join Heritage graduate Georgie Mackenzie at UVA in the fall.
In her final cross country season at Tuscarora, Wolcott finished runner up in the VHSL 5A State championship, falling just short of her second individual state title. Wolcott won the VHSL 5A State championship in 2015.
While her journey to individual history fell short in 2017, Wolcott – who ran the second fastest time in LoCo this fall (17:56.40) – helped the Lady Huskies to their third team state championship in the last four years.
“I could not have asked for a better team at Tuscarora. In four years, we won three cross country state championships, and we worked our butts off for each one,” Wolcott said. “Coach [Troy] Harry is an awesome coach, and I don’t think we would have accomplished as much with someone else guiding us. I love all my teammates, and I will miss them so much next year.”
After she started running as a hobby, Wolcott quickly found success in the sport. In fact, her continued success at Tuscarora made Wolcott the first student-athlete to ever be named first team All-LoCo following all four seasons of her high school career.
“I started running in middle school just for fun and realized that not only did it make me feel good, I was also pretty good at it,” Wolcott said. “Now I run because I can’t imagine what my life would be like if I didn’t. I love every part of running, from easy runs to workouts, from long runs to races.”