Lynn native and Gordon College freshman Rachel Brennan has been absolutely burning up the track this spring, and with the season now over following the Commonwealth Coast Conference Women’s Track and Field Championship this past weekend, she can finally look back at her success with some pride.
“It was so fun to finally get out there and compete again because I haven’t run outdoor track in two years now,” said Brennan, who graduated from Lynn Classical in 2020. “We did intra-squad meets during the fall, but to be able to go out and compete against other schools was really fun and it was a great year.”
Brennan burst onto the scene in her first season running for the Fighting Scots, breaking three school records and one conference record as an individual as well as breaking a school record as a member of the distance medley relay team. Her efforts earned her CCC Rookie of the Week honors in two separate weeks and also helped Gordon finish second as a team at the CCC Women’s Track and Field Championship.
“My coach (Justin Wikerd) put together a really good training plan in the offseason and it really paid off,” said Brennan. “I was definitely nervous at first to compete against college athletes, but it’s been a real confidence boost to see that I’m just as good as anyone else at this level.”
And Brennan didn’t just break these records by a second or two — she shattered them. The first one came at the Gordon College Track & Field Invitational on April 11, when Brennan teamed up with Abigail Baier, Amanda Page and Emma Shearer, and Rachel Brennan to earn a time of 13:09.31 in the distance medley relay — breaking a school record and beating second-place Endicott by more than a minute.
“That one was a lot of fun because I had never run that kind of relay before and it really played to everyone’s strengths,” said Brennan.
The next weekend, Brennan broke her first school record as an individual when she ran the 5000-meter in a time of 18:49.75 — putting her 10th on the New England region performance list and earning her the first of two CCC Rookie of the Week awards.
She continued her strong running the following week, breaking a school record in the one-mile by eight seconds with a time of 5:26.08 at the Suffolk Invitational.
All of that work led to the CCC Women’s Track and Field Championship, where Brennan broke a school and conference record in the 3000-meter with a time of 10:45.32. She then went on to dominate in the 5000-meter, running in a time of 19:38.73 to win by nearly 30 seconds.
That performance earned her another CCC Rookie of the Week nod.
But the work isn’t done here, as Brennan has already begun preparing for her next season — cross country in the fall.
“I’m going to probably run in one more meet next week before I take a 10-day break, and then it’ll be time to start preparing for cross country,” said Brennan. “It’ll be exciting to compete in the fall and try to build off of this season.”
