Leading the Pack

Hannah Snayd ’27 was not a college athlete prior to transferring to Fairfield as a sophomore, but her competitive spirit was ignited in an unlikely place. “As I was going through the process of transferring to Fairfield, it was very stressful,” Snayd recalled. “One of the things that helped me get through that stress was running, and I really fell in love with it, so I reached out to Coach Jayworth and asked about joining the cross country team.”

One problem? Snayd had never actually run cross country before, although the Newtown, Conn. native had played soccer and run shorter distances for her high school’s track and field squad.

“At first I didn’t know what to make of her email,” said Fairfield Cross Country Head Coach Jake Jayworth. “Her 400m and 800m times suggested that she had some level of speed, but it was unclear how that would translate to a 6K.” As he does for any athlete who shows interest, the Fairfield coach told Snayd she was welcome to try out.

Taking the initiative over the summer, Snayd participated in a few local 5K races and the Fairfield Half Marathon and emailed Coach Jayworth with her times. After learning of her impressive showings, Jayworth decided to forego the tryout and offered her a spot on the Stags’ roster for the fall of 2024.

The pre season for cross country is a short one, and less than two weeks stood between the official start of training and the first competition of the fall slate. While Snayd demonstrated the ability to contribute to the team scoring during early training runs in the August heat, expectations remained as silent optimism until the first race of the year: the Marist Season Opener on August 31, 2024.

“We met in my office the day before that race,” Coach Jayworth said, “and Hannah’s question to me was ‘Coach, what do I do?’ I told her to just have fun – rely on your teammates and we’ll see what happens.”

What happened was, Snayd won her first race by more than 21 seconds. Three weeks later, she placed second at the annual Ted Owen Invitational, hosted by Central Connecticut State University. A month after that, she won the 2024 Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) individual championship with a time of 20:41.9 in the 6k race.

To top it all off, on Nov. 2, 2024, Snayd became the first individual MAAC Champion – men’s or women’s – in Fairfield Cross Country history. Crossing the finish line with a time of 20:36.3 on the Montgomery, N.Y. course, more than nine seconds ahead of the second-place finisher. She was named both the MAAC Most Outstanding Runner and Rookie of the Year.

Snayd’s reaction to her championship victory was the same as it had been after every race. She headed to the sidelines and cheered for her teammates as they crossed the finish line. “I didn’t really think about it. One of my first thoughts was that I knew my teammate Mia [Strazzella ’27] was running a really strong race, and I wanted to see her finish.”

While Snayd was the leader of the pack, she was not the only Fairfield harrier driving the team’s success. Fairfield Women’s Cross Country capped the 2024 season with its best showing at the NCAA Northeast Regionals since 2012. On the men’s side, the Stags matched their best MAAC Championship finish of the past decade.

“As our team is growing into a more competitive program, having a runner like Hannah makes a huge difference. She’s setting the bar for her teammates,” Coach Jayworth said. “We have student-athletes on both the women’s and men’s teams who can be All-MAAC runners in their careers, and they’re setting loftier goals for themselves. I think part of the reason for that is that Hannah has shown them what’s possible for a Fairfield cross country runner.”

And for Snayd herself, it remains to be seen just how high the bar can go.

“That’s the fun part about this sport,” summed up Coach Jayworth. “Every day, you throw yourself into it fully, you give your best effort, and you find out what your limit is. And the limit is very high for Hannah. We’re not sure what it is yet, but we’re finding out and it’s exciting for all of us.”

Related Stories