In a roundabout way, running track at Grand Valley State University was an inevitability for senior distance runners Rachel Patterson and Betsey Graney.

Neither ran at GVSU prior to this season, and both are in their first years at GVSU, members of the school’s College of Health Professions.

While both hail from Michigan — Patterson from Rochester and Graney from Harper Woods — the duo’s journey to running at GVSU and working toward graduate degrees in the physical therapy field have come full-circle this year.

“I tried not to press the issue a lot, but I think they were pretty much set on Grand Valley from an academic stand point,” said GVSU head track and field coach Jerry Baltes. “I tried to spin the positives about running and stuff … hopefully they see it as a homecoming and are excited to be back in the Mitten State and closer to home.”

That homecoming was something neither was looking at four years ago when both were attending Division I schools outside of the state. Patterson, who has run the 5k and 3k in the indoor season, ran at Miami (Ohio) University, while Graney, running at the College of William and Mary, has run the mile and 3k.

“I loved William and Mary because of the atmosphere, but I kind of wanted to go somewhere a little further from home,” said Graney, who considered GVSU for her undergraduate degree. “My cousin (Blake Terhune) ran here in the early 2000s, so I had talked to Jerry before and knew the program was really great.”

After four years at their previous schools, both runners are allowed to run this indoor and outdoor season due to NCAA rules stating that cross country, indoor and outdoor track and field are three different sports. That rule allows graduate student athletes, like the case of former University of Wisconsin quarterback Russell Wilson, who have not exhausted all four years of their eligibility at a sport to make up the semester at another institution.

Graney and Patterson ran for four years in cross country and three in indoor and outdoor track, leaving a semester of indoor and outdoor track to run this season at GVSU.

“I would see Grand Valley at a lot of our track meets last year, so I had known some people who ran at GVSU, and I think it was just the success they were having that attracted me,” Patterson said. “The other thing that sealed the deal was that Betsey doing it too. Seeing that someone else in grad school was also going to run helped just because of how much greater I thought the workload was going to be.”

While both have put academics first, that workload has proven to be as advertised. Strangers four years ago when their careers began, the duo has built a friendship and will train together around the downtown Grand Rapids area, either between or after class, and that companionship has helped their friendship grow.

“Betsy’s always so positive, she’s a huge motivation for me,” Patterson said. “It’s kind of funny because sometimes when were running we’ll study, so it’s kind of multi tasking.”

From the multi-tasking to the competition — both have run in two meets this year — the runners have taken their opportunity and “ran” with it. Citing a family atmosphere within the team and a similar level of competition to what they saw at the Division I level, the duo has made the early stages of their homecoming a worthwhile experience.

“I don’t think I could do it without Rachel,” Graney said. “Because we have different schedules and we’re downtown, to have her as a training partner and for the support, it’s really great.”

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