Bentley University

When Suzy Walsh arrived at Bentley as a freshman, she had previously never run cross country in her life. However, having already been a solid indoor and outdoor track athlete, she gave up soccer and began participating in cross country to stay in shape for track. Before the end of her collegiate career, she was a star in all three sports. Not only was she a standout, but she was the owner of a conference cross country crown, a half dozen school records and a like number of MVP awards.
 
Suzy, who joined her older (and much bigger) brother Mike in the Bentley Hall of Fame in 1999, was the cross country MVP all four seasons and the track team MVP in 1993 and 1994. Her career also featured All-New England honors three times and three trips to NCAA Division II Championships.
 
"Suzy was an extremely dedicated and motivated individual," said Ed Lyons, Bentley’s head coach from 1992-2010. "This was best exemplified by her progress in cross country. Even though she had never run cross country previously, she took the sport very seriously. To perform at the level that she did, you must be self-motivated. She especially took it upon herself to work out with and without the team."
 
As a freshman, Suzy competed in her first Northeast-10 Conference Cross Country Championships, finishing 20th overall. She bettered that finish by eight places as a sophomore and then climbed another eight spots to fourth in 1992.
 
In 1993, just three years after her debut in the sport, Suzy was the Northeast-10 champion, winning the 5,000-meter race by 30 seconds. Later that fall, she earned All-New England honors after finishing 15th at the New England championships.
 
In track, Suzy qualified for the NCAA Division II Championships three times while regularly breaking the school record in the 800 meters. The Wilmington, Massachusetts product made two trips as a junior, indoors to Vermillion, S.D. and outdoors to Abilene, Texas, with her brother also competing in the latter. As a senior at the indoor championships in Fargo, N.D., she missed advancing to the finals by just 0.02 seconds, despite a school record time of 2:15.74.