College Corner: Rider XC/Track's Heather Giovagnoli

Four years of hard work and long athletic seasons have truly paid off for Rider University senior Heather Giovagnoli. An education and psychology double major, Giovagnoli has two more semesters to go before she begins her desired career in elementary education.

A graduate of , Giovagnoli said she went to Rider because of head coach Bob Hamer, who coaches both cross country and track and field. Giovagnoli is on all of the teams: cross country, indoor and outdoor track.

"I really liked him and where this program was headed," she explained. "It was on the upswing."

Giovagnoli noted that over the four years in her competitive career, there have been a lot of ups and downs.

"I’ve had some injuries," she said. "Freshman year, I had a lot of successes. I placed 14th at our conference meet, which is really exciting. After that, I was pretty much injured the rest of the year. Then, I got the flu two years. This past fall was probably my best cross country season I ever had. I had some [personal records] and I placed eighth in the conference meet, which is the best finish I’ve had in college."

Giovagnoli said that eighth place finish was the best of her career. However, she's had plenty of other success. According to the official athletics website of the Broncs, she placed fifth in the mile (5:19.28) at the 2009-10 MAAC Indoor Championships.

She also ran on the 4x400 relay that finished third (4:12.19), placed sixth in the 800m (2:23.86), and placed seventh in the 1500m (4:50.73) at the 2009 MAAC Outdoor Championships, ran on the Indoor record setting 4x800 relay (9:18.59) and on the Indoor DMR (12:10.12), ran on the 4x800 relay that placed 20th at the 2009-10 ECAC Indoor Championships, and also finished 43rd (19:21) at the 2009 ECAC Cross Country Championships.

Although much of her success came in college, Giovagnoli said she wants to beat out some PRs from her high school career, which differs somewhat from her college career.

"In high school, I didn’t do as much mileage," Giovagnoli said. "That was different when I went to college, getting adjusted for that. As far as Spring-Ford, I had a lot of success there. My coaches were great. They really took care of me and helped me believe in myself. So, Spring-Ford was a great experience for me."

As for the future, Giovagnoli hopes to come back to the Spring-Ford Area School District to teach in one of the elementary schools. She also said she'd like to get her foot in the door with volunteer coaching for track and field and maybe someday get a job coaching within the district.

Her psychology major is something that interests her, but Giovagnoli is unsure at this time if she will ever use it professionally. Since Rider requires education majors to double, Giovagnoli said her interest in a psychology class her senior year at Spring-Ford helped her choose that second major. Otherwise, she is shooting for the stars for the end of her college career.

"I’d like to finish with a high GPA by the time I graduate," she said. "I’m not graduating this spring. I have a semester to use for student teaching, so I actually won’t be done until the fall."

Overall, Giovagnoli thanked the Spring-Ford community for all of the support it gave to her during her time here.

"I would just say that they were all really supportive of our athletic programs," she said. "That really helped with the administrators being so supportive. Everyone was like a big family. I really appreciated that."