Adalie Harrison

 

 

The Harrisons.

 

Staff report

ASHEVILLE — Adalie Harrison, all 61 inches of her, ran the last meet of her college career in the rain in the Big South Championships, but she brought sunshine to tracks, fields and gyms for a long time.

Harrison, a 2020 East Rowan graduate, was Rowan County Female Athlete of the Year during the COVID era. Her senior year she was the county cross country champion in the fall and scored her 1,oooth point in basketball and led a 20-win group of Mustangs in the winter. Her senior soccer and track and field seasons — she was planning to double up on spring sports — were wiped out by COVID.

She headed to Lenoir-Rhyne with the goal of being a cross country/basketball/track athlete for the Bears.

On Jan. 27, 2021, Harrison made a free throw for L-R basketball in a game against Mars Hill. That would be the only point of her college career, but officially it will make her four-sport college athlete in the history books.

While college basketball didn’t work out for her, she did fine in the running sports and transferred to Division I USC Upstate for the 2022-23 school year. She debuted in cross country in September 2022.

Harrison competed in cross country, indoor track and outdoor track for the Spartans, so she was running and competing year-round.

Her track PRs were 2:31 in the 800; 5:38 in the mile; 19:26 for 5000 meters; 5:12 for the 1500 meters, and 11:19 for the 3000 meters.

In cross country, her best times were 19:50 for a 5K (she ran that time in 2024) and 25:08 for a 6K.

Her 800 PR came recently in the Big South Indoor Track Championships.

She ran the 1500 and 5000 in less than ideal conditions in the Big South Outdoor Championships to close her career. She ran 5:17 in the 1500 and 19:52 in the 5000.

She graduated last December with a nursing degree and was a graduate student in psychology during the spring semester.