Women Make History In Cross Country Meet

For 158 years, Virginia Military Institute has been represented in sports by well-built young men with shaved heads wearing gold and red. Until Saturday.

For the first time, five female cadets sporting buzzed hair, red shorts and T-shirts took to the field in a cross country meet.

“It piqued other schools interest to see girls with no hair,” said Emily Van Arman, a transfer student from Norwich University. “But it was nice to hear everyone from other colleges yelling for VMI.”

Rachel Love, 18, of Emmaus, Pa., said running fast was more important than making history.

“This is just another race,” said Love, her hair drenched with sweat after the 3.1-mile race. “Out here, we’re just a bunch of girls racing to see who is the best.”

Love is a VMI scholarship athlete who finished first among the VMI women and 29th overall at Saturday’s Virginia Invitational cross country meet, sponsored by the University of Virginia.

VMI enrolled its first coed class last month after a 1996 Supreme Court ruling that state-supported school could no longer be all-male. The school spent millions to keep women out, arguing that admitting women would destroy the school’s unique character.

“They are trying to handle this as just a meet but they know this is the first time women have competed for VMI,” said VMI cross country coach Mike Bozeman.