At the Mike Lints Alumni Open on Jan. 16, the Grand Valley State women’s track and field team revealed its secret weapon, and her name is Amy Cymerman.

Cymerman, a senior, won the one-mile run with a time of 4:54.93. She was in four seconds ahead of GVSU’s third-place finisher, Amy Creutz, and five seconds ahead of the team’s fourth-place finisher, Kendra Foley – the reigning cross country national champion.

Cymerman was tabbed as the GLIAC Female Track Athlete of the Week three days later.

“She is very driven and very focused when it comes to what she does,” said GVSU coach Jerry Baltes. “Having her on the team will add depth to the roster – not only later on in the season, but right away. She is racing really well and it’s showing early in the season.

“She brings qualities to the other runners that will help them get better, she is a very talented athlete and that shows. The five girls all run together in practice and they all try to push each other, helping each other become better instead of trying to beat each other. She has qualities that can help them be better runners and they have qualities that can help her be more successful.”

Cymerman is a graduate student who transferred from St. Lawrence University (Canton, N.Y.) where she had a very successful indoor and outdoor track career. The Pittsford, N.Y. native placed first in several different indoor events, earning USTFCCCA All-American honors with a sixth-place finish in the 3,000-meter run (9:46.49) and a third-place finish in the 5,000-meter run (16:47.21) – both personal bests.

“There wasn’t one aspect of Grand Valley that I didn’t like,” she said. “I loved the two campuses, the downtown area, the coaches, my master’s program and especially the strong running legacy.”

It might take some transfer students time to fit right in and mesh with an already close group of student athletes, but Cymerman seems to be fitting in quite nicely.

“It was definitely a big adjustment coming here and blending in with a team that was already very tight-knit, but everyone has been very welcoming and encouraging to me,” she said. “The girls at first seemed intimidating – I mean they just won their third straight NCAA cross country title so I was nervous to run with them – but they’re all really funny and personable.

“I came to Grand Valley to get a master’s degree in Higher Ed, make some lifelong connections and enjoy being in West Michigan, so I think the team really gets that and respects that there is more to me than running. In that way, it’s becoming easier to fit in and find my niche in the team.”

Although she doesn’t have eligibility left for cross country, she considers herself a cross country runner “purely for the love of the sport.”

For Cymerman, it’s nice to have so many accomplished runners pushing her.

“The majority of us in that race are more distance 3k/5k/10k; we’re not real ‘milers’ so that race was geared more toward gaining speed and just seeing what we can do,” she said. “I’m incredibly lucky to have so many talented training partners, the best training partners in D2 coming off of cross country, so I am really looking forward to seeing what we all can do in the next couple months.”

With her having two years of eligibility left at GVSU for indoor and outdoor track and field, it should be interesting to see what she can accomplish as a Laker.