Moraine Valley is a school for great runners, winning multiple conference and regional cross country team championships. This year, both the women’s and men’s teams ran in the national tournament, and Coach Dimitri Dimizas was named Region Coach of the Year.

But despite the success of the cross country teams, Moraine Valley has no official track team and has only a newly formed club. The athletes want to change that. But it’s not as easy as it might seem.

“I’ve been at Moraine for 17 years as a student athlete,” said Dimizas, who advocates for an official track team. “I was an assistant coach for five years and then 10 years as the head coach. It has always been a goal of mine to get track started because I know how important that is to cross country runners.” 

This year, a track club was created for runners who want to improve their running beyond the cross country season. While Moraine runners are excited to participate in the first-ever track club, that’s all it is: just a club.

Track runners practice with Dimizas five days a week for the fall cross country season, then run hours after that for the track club on their own time. They build trust in each other throughout the cross country season and carry it to their track experience. 

Currently, baseball, basketball, golf, soccer, tennis, softball and volleyball are also offered by Moraine and funded by the college. All are sports students can participate in during the school year, some seeking scholarship opportunities. The runners point to their success as a reason to start an official NJCAA team.

“Just look at our times, I mean, we’re getting regional,” said freshman cross country runner Gavin Rybicki. “We just got all-regional, all-conference, we just went to nationals.” 

Even without funding, Moraine’s runners have gone toe-to-toe with their rival counterparts on the track, according to another freshman runner. 

“We’ve achieved a little bit more than some of the other community colleges in the area that also have an official track team,” David Santiago said.  

Dimizas and the runners say that college funding would help them go to meets as an official team. Last year, athletes participated in them on their own dime, and were unable to officially represent the college, according to Jacob Madera. 

“It didn’t really feel like a team because we couldn’t represent Moraine,” the sophomore biology major said. “Most of the races we ran were on our own.” 

Many participants in this semester’s inaugural track club were last semester’s cross country runners. Track club athletes say an official team would improve campus life, increase student athlete enrollment and contribute to the overall success of current and future Moraine athletes. 

“There’s definitely people out there, from what I know from surrounding schools, that just go to community college because that’s the next option, and they drop all their athletics,” said Rybicki. “But to have [a track team], I think that will drive a lot more people to come to the school.” 

Track club athletes believe an official track team would increase Moraine transfers’ consideration for university admission and scholarships. Universities take into account students’ past collegiate sporting experience during the application process. High school track athletes often consider schools that offer track when enrolling in community college, hoping to bring collegiate experience to their transfer university.

“Especially when recruiting track athletes, part of their scholarships would be to run cross country and track,” said Eva Zimmerman, who as a freshman last fall became only the second Cylcone in history to win NJCAA Region 4 Runner of the Year. She also earned NJCAA Coaches Association All-American after the national championship, which goes to the top 15 percent of finishers.

Part of the reason Moraine doesn’t offer track officially is the lack of practice space for the runners. Moraine runners point to the fact that the college does not have an official track despite the spacious health, fitness and recreation center, which has various facilities and equipment available for other sports. They argue that a track would be beneficial for everyone.

“Not even just for the program, but also the community,” Santiago said. “I’m sure a lot of people would use it. You always see people walking around (campus).” 

Moraine could host more sporting events and be able to provide more space for event spectators in the future, according to the athletes. Competitive benefits for runners would materialize as well.

“I think if we had a team for track here, it would be more official. Like there’s actual stakes now,” said sophomore Miguel Dimaculangan. “There’s an expectation and accountability rather than just running for fun, or just not having that event at all.”

Dimaculangan, a Filipino student, joined track club without much knowledge of American college athletics after running track in high school.

Moraine runners want the college to offer track officially, but administrators say they cannot subsidize the cost of doing so. 

“In our latest community survey, the athletics departments were shown to have the least support of all projects on campus,” said Vice President of Student Development Normah Salleh-Barone. “This would require $2-3 million just to start the project for an outdoor track.”

The cost to operate the program, transportation to other colleges to compete, and pay for coaching staff is also prohibitive, she said.

Local competition is not an issue. Moraine would be able to compete with nearby colleges that have official teams. Moraine’s administration says the absence of a track team comes down to financial resources.

“Joliet Junior College has a program, so does College of Dupage and Harper, too. There are programs out there to compete with,” Salleh-Barone said. “We just cannot support the cost of the facilities at this time.”

Although they find it unfortunate Moraine cannot fund track at the moment, the track club members say the club is still open for any students to join and welcome participation to continue advocating for track at the college.

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FEATURED IMAGE BY AHMAD HADAD

Track club members in featured image, from left: Marsay Cooks, Andrew Leon, Juan Macias, Jacob Silva, Gavin Rybicki, David Santiago, Miguel Dimaculangan, Eva Zimmerman, Matthew Busch, and Fernanda Cabrera.