“I have a bit of an unorthodox journey, I would say,” Ellie Wolski said to open her interview.

The graduate student from Knoxville, Tennessee, wasn’t kidding.

It wasn’t until two years ago that Wolski started running cross country — the sport that earned her a spot as an SEC student-athlete. Before that, she played soccer at Coastal Carolina University as an outside winger. Then she got hurt.

“I had a lower back injury in my L2 [vertebrae], a stress reaction, my sophomore year playing soccer,” Wolksi said. “All I could do when I was rehabbing was run.”

Wolksi wasn’t a complete stranger to competitive running before starting her cross country career. Her mother ran track for Tennessee, and the younger Wolski ran track in high school during the soccer offseason. But it never really clicked that running competitively was what she should be doing until that fateful injury. That’s not to say there weren’t signs, though.

“I found even within soccer practices, the [ones] I was most confident in, that I was most looking forward to, were the conditioning practices,” Wolski said. “Who actually looks forward to the conditioning part of practice? Maybe that should have been my sign right off the bat.”

Then, while rehabbing from her injury, a realization set in.

“I went and had a conversation with my coach for soccer, and I was like, you know, coming back from injury, I don’t really feel like I have the same love for soccer anymore,” Wolski said. “Before I even said anything about running, he said if you want to stay here and run, I’ll walk down the hall and talk with [the cross country coach], and I’ll vouch for you.”

That conversation marked the end of one career and the beginning of a new one. From the start, Wolski knew this was the journey she was destined to pursue.

“For me, it just clicked,” Wolski said. “I started running, and I was like, yeah, this is where I was always supposed to be. It really just clicked and felt natural.”

The then-junior immediately earned her keep as one of the Chanticleer’s best runners — competing in every meet and finishing in the top 25 in four of them. Highlighting the season was a 25th-place place finish at the Sun Belt Championships. Wolski even competed in track and field that spring, earning some of the best times in program history in the 5,000 and 10,000-meter events.

“For me, the transition was easy, and there wasn’t much of a learning curve because it’s where I probably should have been all along,” Wolski said.

As a senior in just her second year of competitive running, Wolski was named to the All-Sun Belt First Team after finishing in the top three at four of the Chanticleer’s six meets. Some people have natural talent, and Wolski’s relationship with running is a shining example of that.

“On any given day, running would help me think through problems or think through [the] stress that was going on in my life,” Wolski said. “On other days, when I needed to just forget all about things, all I could think about was running.”

Wolski’s time at Coastal Carolina came to a close after only two short years of running cross country. Just like with the transition from soccer, the end of her time at Coastal Carolina marked the beginning of a whole new journey. Rather than return to the Chanticleers to pursue a graduate degree and run for one more season, Wolski opted to start a new chapter of her life on West End.

“I felt like I had capitalized on the resources I had been given there [at Coastal Carolina], and I was ready to get into a bigger pond,” Wolski said. “I was ready to go ahead and push myself to grow rather than stay in the same place.”

From her first official visit to Vanderbilt in January 2024, Wolski knew Nashville was the place she wanted to be.

“When I came and visited, I immediately recognized that they were all a team above [everything] else,” Wolski said. “They were all a team [and not] any one individual, and I was really impressed with that mentality. It was a really genuine energy they gave off.”

Vanderbilt’s coaching staff felt the same way about her.

“From the moment I met her, I noticed she had the grit, focus and determination that I’ve seen in All-SEC and All-American type athletes,” cross country director Althea Thomas said.

Through two meets, Wolski has earned her keep. She placed second among all Commodores at both the Southern Showcase and the Joe Piane Invitational. She’s also already become enamored with the way Vanderbilt Cross Country operates.

“The biggest thing I can say is when we pulled up to [the Southern Showcase], there were over 60 teams there, with hundreds of girls racing, and I think that our team definitely stood out as the fun team,” Wolski said. “I think it was a really good energy that we brought. We’re here to compete and work hard, but for the most part, if you’re having fun with something, you’re going to perform better.”

Performing better every day is Wolski’s goal for the season, as this is her only remaining season to run at the NCAA level. It’s been a short career, but Wolski has used it as fuel instead of letting it hold her back.

“My running career has already been a bit stunted,” Wolski said. “I don’t get the same amount of time as everybody else, so I feel a bit more pressure and I feel a huge urge and passion and ambition to capitalize and live up to my full potential this year.”

When defining her potential, Wolski opts for an approach common among runners: don’t stress over results and times. Instead, she stresses over the work she puts in, knowing that the times will follow.

“I try not to set too hard of expectations in terms of specific times because I think that can be limiting,” Wolski said. “My intention is just in the relationships and in the relationship with myself, and walking away feeling satisfied knowing that whatever my potential is within this year, I lived up to it.”

The coaching staff has already seen those relationships forming and bearing fruit.

“She’s a very mature, intelligent, optimistic and grateful person,” Thomas said. “She shows her gratitude every day either verbally or in her physical sacrifices when she trains and competes.” 

Wolski’s supportive, can-do attitude has manifested itself from her first day on campus.

“The first cross country workout of the year, I brought my dog to Percy Warner [Park] to watch and welcome the team back,” Thomas said. “We both heard [Wolski] give encouraging words to the group to push through for another 400 meters to the finish line. She said very clearly, ‘This is where we get better and show we want it.’”

Even Thomas’ dog was happy with the new recruit.

“I looked at my dog and said, ‘I think we got us a good one, don’t you,’” Thomas said. “My dog has great instincts.”

Dogs, goals and competition aside, Wolski is just happy to have another season to run competitively. She professes to get chills just by talking about it. Competitively or casually, there’s something about running that just feels natural to the Knoxville native.

“[Running] is hard, it’s really hard,” Wolski said. “It challenges you so much. Sometimes you go into a workout, and you’re like, ‘This is going to hurt.’”

But it’s about more than just the pain.

“A lot of the fear for me with running is that I want to make sure that I live up to my expectation of not being a quitter, of being a hard worker,” Wolski said. “Running gives me the opportunity to validate all those things, and it also gives me the opportunity to surprise myself.”

That’s part of why Wolski isn’t so caught up in her times or placements this season. She’s concerned about them, of course, but it isn’t about the statistics alone. It’s about something much bigger.

“In my mind, I keep saying, ‘You don’t need to make any specific time happen this year,” Wolski said. “Have fun and work hard. It’s one more year of your life, and you just have to soak it up and enjoy it. You’re going to look back, and you’re not going to remember specific times. You’re going to remember the sensation of being with the team and working hard and knowing that you gave it your all. Whatever times come with that are going to come.”

Through it all, Wolski has one message for anyone who runs, competes or does anything at all: Take joy in it.

“At the heart of it, I just love running,” Wolski said. “It’s such a freeing experience. Whatever it may be, I just try to approach it with joy, and I hope that’s articulated to my teammates.”

Running, in Wolski’s mind, is for everybody.

“Anybody can do it,” Wolski said. “It’s one of the most inclusive sports you can be a part of, and I’m very thankful to be a part of it.”

Only a few meets into the season, Vanderbilt Cross Country is lucky to have Wolski as a part of its program.