In mid-November, despite all the uncertainty of what was going around due to the pandemic, Olivia Beaudet signed a letter of content to run cross country as well as track for Division 1 Merrimack College out of North Andover, MA.   It was an institution that the Norwood High School (NHS) senior felt comfortable with.

“I had visited the campus before all the quarantining started in early March and really liked the campus and the smaller class rooms,” Beaudet said. “I had previously run at the college during the outdoor track State Tournament and like the track, so when they reached out to me, I didn’t hesitate.”

 

Mustang cross-country Coach Aimee Worcester has no doubts in her mind that Beaudet can take her running to the next level.

“She can absolutely run for a Division 1 college team,” the Coach said. “Olivia is a hard-working individual; in fact, she is probably the hardest worker that I have ever coached.”

The Norwood resident was first introduced to the sport when she attended middle  school where she ran for the intramural cross-country team. Although it wasn’t a competitive program, she was able to become familiar with the high school course which was on the middle school grounds. 

In the eighth grade, she began running road races and with the help of her mom, the two would locate as many races as they could for her to compete in. First, she was winning her age group, but when she was the first female to cross the finish line Beaudet realized that she could be successful running. 

Not only did she believe that she could take running to the next level, a NHS took notice of her potential.

“The high school came out to watch us (the middle school) run and I was told that I should definitely come out for the cross-country team when I got to high school,” Beaudet recalled. 

Being on the shy side, the incoming NHS freshman kept to herself in the beginning, but quickly found herself running with the boys and keeping up with them. Now she knew that she had a talent.

During that freshman campaign, the first-year runner broke the course record; something she would do again in her sophomore and junior season’s as well.  Beaudet was also the first girl from Norwood to make it all the way to the States for the first time since 2002.

Although she prefers cross-country to track because of the ability to run different courses while being outside, she is as talented a track runner as she is cross-country. In addition to holding the cross-country course record with a time of 19:00, the now senior has a personal best of 5:26 in the one mile.  Beaudet has qualified for the All-States in cross country for three years, is a division medalist in both track and cross-country, and has been named to three All-Star teams in each sport.

Unfortunately, do to Covid-19, this year’s cross-country season was one in which she had never had to deal with in terms of all the adjustments, but she still took to the course with determination. 

“It was a little different having to wear masks, but you get used to it,” Beaudet said. “The one thing that was intimidating was you are usually running against a ton of girls, but this year they sent us out in heats of 10, so basically I was running by myself which takes a toll on you mentally. It’s tough as you’re trying to push yourself with no one around you.”

 Not only were the meets different, so where the team practices, which were only held three times a week and the team couldn’t get together the night before a meet to enjoy their traditional pasta dinners. 

Usually the indoor track season would begin in December, but this year it has been pushed off until February, which Beaudet sees as a good thing with what is happen around us at this time.

“It’s a good thing that they moved track; I don’t think that it would have been good with everyone packed into the Reggie Lewis Center,” the Norwood runner said. “With the delayed start, I’m just going to ease into my training and work at increasing my endurance. When the season does start up, I’m hoping that it’s closer to normal than what we have experienced.”

Once the track season does begin in February, the senior is looking to surpass her personal best in the mile, while getting as close to the school record as she possibly can, if not break it.