Kailee Perry is a freshman cross country runner at BGSU and she is already breaking records.
On March 14, she became the first person in the BGSU cross country program to compete in the NCAA Championships since 1998.
Getting to that race was the biggest accomplishment of her young career, but it wasn’t the first.
Perry grew up in West Liberty, Kentucky, where she ran cross country for Morgan County High School. In her freshman season, Perry placed No. 4 in the Kentucky Class 1A State Championship race. In her sophomore season, she won the State Championship.
Since she won a state title in her second high school season, it seemed Perry was on the road to three state championships. But Perry placed second in both her junior and senior seasons — and it wasn’t due to a lack of will.
“During my high school years I had an iron deficiency, so that played a role in those years. Perry said. “I wasn’t aware until late in the season that I even had it and so it did take a big toll on me, but ultimately that season was a good learning experience to really focus on my health and getting it back to normal.”
Perry fought to come back to full health, and even though she wasn’t able to take home another cross country championship, she was able to take home a Kentucky Track State 1A Championship in both the 1600 and 800 in both her junior and senior seasons.
Her success in both cross country and track caught the attention of BGSU, and they eventually brought her in.
“When I came and visited (women’s cross country head coach) Lou Snelling and the team were the two big things that brought me here. I felt really at home, like that homey type of feeling, and the atmosphere of everyone was just a good fit. I wouldn’t change it for the world,” Perry said.
Perry arrived on campus in the 2019-2020 season but did not compete. In the spring, when she was preparing for her first fall season in 2020, she was sent home like everyone else, due to the coronavirus pandemic.
It was heartbreaking for Perry, who was settling in with the team.
“I was really sad. I did not want to go home or anything like that and be with the team … so when we were sent home it was kind of like leading into the blind because I didn’t know what to expect,” Perry said.
But she didn’t let that time off at home go to waste. Instead she used it to find her love for running again.
“I feel like having that break and really just focusing on myself. It was a hard time for everyone going home. Just not knowing anything in the world, and what was going on, but I focused on running and found my love for it. I feel like that kind of fueled my motivation to want to excel in the fall,” Perry said.
When Perry returned to campus in the fall, she certainly came ready, winning her first race on Nov. 7 with a time of 21:09.5 at the Falcon Invitational.
Then the MAC Championship race came, and Perry stepped it up to another level, winning the 6k meet with a personal best time of 20:41.0.
As she crossed the finish line, she didn’t fully realize what she had just accomplished.
“At the MAC (Snelling) came up to me after the race and he was just like, ‘you are going to nationals’ and I’m like ‘what?’” Perry said. “I guess it never really hit me until like a few days that I actually get to go.”
With the incredible win, Perry not only became the first BGSU qualifier for the meet in 23 years, it also helped her earn multiple honors within the MAC.
She was named first team All-MAC, was named Freshman of the Year in the conference and became the BGSU first freshman to win a MAC championship since 1995. She was the fourth overall individual MAC champion for the Falcons.
Coming into the season, Perry’s goal was to be top 20 in the MAC, and making the NCAA championship was a whole different story.
“With the NCAA race I didn’t picture myself there. In a year’s time, I was like, ‘maybe that could be an end goal in four years,’ but to achieve that this year was pretty special,” Perry said.
At the NCAA race, Perry finished No. 113 and was the 11th freshman to cross the finish line. That marked the best finish for BGSU since 1995.
For Perry, all of the accomplishments coming so early is still a little bit surreal, but she isn’t done setting goals for herself quite yet.
“All-American is a big goal for sure. That is top 40 and the crazy thing with that is that at a race like that, 40 to 113th is not a whole lot of time. So anything is possible. I’ve just got to put the hard work in and I can make it there as long as I believe in myself,” Perry said.
