38 degrees Fahrenheit is only six degrees above freezing.
 
And with 12 mph winds and cloudy skies, it might as well be freezing.
 
But there stood Santa Clara women's cross country sophomore Olivia Schlieman, her six teammates and another 255 of the top runners from across the West behind her. It's the starting line of the 2024 NCAA Division I West Regional Championship in Colfax, Wash., and there is no reprieve from the frigid temps in mid-November, even at 11 a.m.
 
The starter's gun fired, and fewer than 22 minutes later, in the cold, cloudy, and blustery conditions, Schlieman crossed the finish line ahead of nearly 100 more competitors than she had 12 months earlier as a freshman.
 
Her remarkable 98-place improvement was just another chapter in the still-unfinished story of Schlieman — one of resilience, dedication, and the promise of what's still to come.
 
SETBACK TO COMEBACK
There were only 32 people behind Schlieman at the 2023 NCAA Division I Cross Country West Regional championship, where she finished 221st overall – an especially tough result in front of her family and friends, who got to come out and watch with the race being held in her hometown of Sacramento, Calif.
 
But that race, believe it or not, marked a successful end to a tumultuous freshman cross country season in which she never quite felt like herself.
 
Schlieman's first collegiate season in 2023 was also her first in two years. She had missed her entire senior year of high school cross country after being diagnosed with both mononucleosis and strep throat the previous August.
 
"I was just so tired. I would come home from school at 2 and then just sleep until 9 p.m," said Schlieman. She missed two months of school, didn't run a single cross country race, and the college coaches recruiting her started to pull away.
 
"I had to figure out who I was without running," Schlieman said. "It really was weird because every day, I didn't have practice anymore, I'd still go to all the races and watch. I was trying my best to be supportive and stuff, but deep down it was really sad to watch everyone do what you were really looking forward to your senior year."
 
But Santa Clara head coach Pete Cushman and assistant coach Luisa Westley stuck with her, seeing potential beyond the setbacks.
 
"Pete and Luisa were really, really nice and still had me come and visit while I was still sick," said Schlieman.
 
"Olivia's got a lot going for her in general," said Cushman. "She was a great fit for us from the beginning. A great student and driven to be good."
 
After losing her senior cross country season to mononucleosis, Schlieman needed to make sure she even could run competitively again, knowing some people have never been the same afterwards.
 
"I didn't know if I was gonna run in college for sure, but after (the illness) happened I was like, 'I'm for sure running in college now,' because I don't think I could not do it."
 
Doctors limited her to 30 miles per week during her senior track season, forcing her to focus on shorter distances like the 400-meter and 800-meter races rather than the 1,600 and 3,200. A highlight of the season, however, was competing at the prestigious Penn Relays in Philadelphia as part of Rio Americano High's 4x800 relay team.
 
"I think I was like, 'Whatever I can (run), I'll take,'" said Schlieman about returning to running in the spring. "'I'll run the 400 if you want me to, I'll do anything at this point.'"
 
FROM CLEATS TO SPIKES
Schlieman played soccer for 14 years, but running was always there (and not just on the pitch).
 
Her dad ran cross country and track in high school and kept the hobby going as an adult. And once his daughter, Olivia, was old enough, he started dragging her with him.
 
"He's always forced me to run with him, like little Turkey Trots and stuff like that," said Schlieman. "Growing up we did this Super Bowl 10K every year, because it went past my house in Sacramento. And every single year I would take a 20-minute break at my house just crying in the garage because I was so tired and didn't want to do it anymore.
 
"So honestly, my dad got me into running, but he kind of made me hate it for a little bit, just because he would make me run seven-minute pace when I hadn't run in a month. This past year, it's funny because it's like roles reversed because now, I do the same thing to him."
 
When it came time to start looking for colleges and whether or not to continue her athletics career, she untied the soccer cleats and laced up the racing spikes.
 
"I just tried it out (cross country) and then I ended up really liking it my freshman year, and I really liked the team, I feel like that played a big part in it," said Schlieman. "We were all super, super close. It was all my best friends."
 
That camaraderie has continued at Santa Clara, where Schlieman has quickly established herself as a leader among her teammates, especially on a Broncos squad that features nine freshmen this winter.
 
"She's a good teammate," said Cushman. "She cares about how other people do. She's involved in other people's performances, but she's also a great example. Everything she does she does really well. One thing that always stands out to me is that she doesn't get too high or too low, she's a pretty steady person. Which is a great skillset in our sport"
 
TRUST THE PROCESS
The 2023 season started with fear.
 
"I remember getting up on the line at USF and I was so scared," said Schlieman. "I wanted to cry. I was like, 'I don't want to do this, I don't want to do this, I can't do it.' I was standing there terrified. I thought, 'I don't know if I can do this.'"

Those were her feelings on the starting line at the first meet of her collegiate career, on Sept. 1, 2023, at the annual University of San Francisco Invitational in Golden Gate Park. And this was coming from someone who ran in the California state cross country championships multiple times at Rio Americano High School.
 
But to her surprise, she not only started that USF Invitational – her first cross country competition in two years – she finished it, too.

"The race, honestly, went a lot better than I thought it was going to," said Schlieman. "I didn't even know if I was going to finish, I was so scared. But I feel like after USF I was OK, like, 'I can do this.' I feel like every race it got better and better."
 
Schlieman worked hard in the fall of 2023 to get back her rhythm, her confidence, the ability to push her body without fear of excessive fatigue, aches, even a swollen spleen – all complications of the mononucleosis she endured only months before as a senior in high school. But with all the complications that come with being a college freshman– new environment, new experience, settling into life in school – it was difficult for Schlieman.
 
"I put my best into the races, but I just didn't see the results that I wanted to," she said.
 
Even so, Schlieman made the Broncos' West Coast Conference Championship squad, and then also made the regionals squad that season.
 
"That was definitely the plan, just get her adapted to what we're trying to do," said Cushman. "Not a lot of expectation for her freshman year, but she did end up making our regional squad. That was a really good sign, that she was able to perform like that in the fall. Obviously, there's a lot more in the tank."
 
IT'S COMING BACK
Schlieman started to get back to her old self last spring in her first collegiate track season. She ran a multitude of distances, from a leg on SCU's 4x400 team all the way up to 5,000 meters.
 
"You've had a quarter to adapt to life away from home, new program, new teammates, new coaches, all those new things, and now we need to start doing what we do," said Cushman of Schlieman's transition from cross country to track in 2024. "She had a really solid spring. Last track season we started to see what she was capable of."
 
After her post-season break, Schlieman ramped up training at home over the holidays and things started clicking. "I started feeling better on my workouts," she said. "I was definitely way more consistent putting the effort in and really trusting the coaches and their workouts they gave us.
 
"The first few (track) races, I felt like I had my junior year of high school. I felt like my freshman year for cross country I still kind of felt different, I didn't feel like myself."
 
BREAKTHROUGH
30 degrees in Washington is a dramatic change from the near-115 degrees Schlieman trained through only four months prior at home in Sacramento, Calif. It was summer 2024 between her freshman and sophomore years at Santa Clara, and it was time to see what she had.
 
"Last summer was the first summer I really built up my mileage," said Schlieman. "I had my highest mileage over the summer, which is something I had never done before. It gets 115 degrees here, so I'd have to get up at 6 a.m. and do my workouts. The year before, I'm sure I would just sleep in and then do it on the treadmill. It's just not the same."
 
"That was the first time she hit that kind of volume," said Cushman. "The other thing was a lot more intention with her work, too. Really intentional with everything she does, even the basic things. Her pace became more honest, and just showing up every day."
 
The strong summer base gave Schlieman a renewed confidence to start last fall's cross country campaign. A year after starting at the back of the pack at the USF Invitational, hoping the race wouldn't even start, she was on the front line.
 
"It was crazy different," said Schlieman. "I was actually excited to race, and I hadn't been excited to run a cross country race in over two years."
 
Her hard work paid off all season, running more than a minute faster at the USF Invite to start the year, cutting 45 seconds at the Bronco Invitational in October, and placing eight spots higher with a time more than two minutes faster at the WCC Championship on Nov. 2.
 
Then came the regional race.
 
Schlieman placed 123rd at the 2024 NCAA Division I Cross Country West Regional – 98 spots ahead of her 2023 performance – and ran it in 21:49.3 after running 23:10 and finishing 221st the year before.
 
"It was kind of what I expected just because of how her spring went and her summer went," said Cushman. "It wasn't a shock. When they're that early in their career here, I'm not that surprised when they make those big jumps. It was great to see, but not necessarily shocking either.
 
"What we've seen in her and this has been true in every great runner we've had, is that she's been so remarkably consistent. That was a really rewarding race, to put that all together."
 
WHAT'S NEXT?
The 2025 track season presents another opportunity for Schlieman to elevate her performance.
 
"It's the durability and consistency," said Cushman about Schlieman's training. "In the spring, we're really going to be thinking about the 5 and the 15."
 
Now, Schlieman knows she can do it, thanks to the coaching staff planting the seed in her mind.
 
"A week before regionals, Luisa told me something interesting. It was, 'You don't need one big, heroic moment or one breakout race. It's consistency and the little things … We're not asking you to do anything out of your capabilities. You're capable to do any of this because we've seen you do it.'
 
"That gave me more confidence. So, I feel like every race, knowing that in the back of my mind was very helpful. The year before, they'd tell me something and I knew I couldn't do it, but this year I knew I could. I felt like a completely different person."