Settling in the first year of college can take an adjustment period for some students, but that’s not the case for University of Rhode Island freshman, Kelly Iocca, who was just awarded her second A-10 rookie of the week award in the young season.
“It didn’t feel real,” Iocca said. “It’s so crazy to know that all this is happening to me so early in the season.”
So far this season Iocca has finished with times of 19:00 and 18:21.7 which she finished 11th overall in the field of 69 runners and third among Rhode Island runners.
A native of Oakdale, N.Y., Ioca is no stranger to the art of winning. She holds the Connetquot High School record in the 3000m, 2-mile and the 2000m steeplechase in which she qualified for the Steeplechase National Championship three years in a row. (2015, 2016, 2017)
Her successful high school career earned her a handful of options while choosing schools as she considered Rider, Siena and Monmouth before she chose URI.
“I definitely made the right decision coming to URI,” Iocca said. “My coach knows how to prepare us for races and she listens to us if we’re not feeling well one day, she is really accommodating in that way for our team and the support from my team has also been great.”
However, although she has had a successful season thus far she still feels there is still much she has yet to accomplish.
“I definitely plan on helping out the team by scoring at the A10 meets,” she said. “I also really want to break 18 [minutes] at the 5K so that’s a goal I really want to work on throughout this season.”
Iocca and the University of Rhode Island cross country team return to action Saturday Oct. 7 at the New England Championship in Franklin, Mass.