Graduate mile runner Emma Watcke’s history with Loyola’s coaching staff and team is long, the product of a culture of care and individual dedication.
Graduate mile runner Emma Watcke’s history with Loyola’s coaching staff and team is long, the product of a culture of care and individual dedication.
Content Warning: Suicide
This isn’t the first time graduate mile runner Emma Watcke and Loyola track and field head coach Gavin Kennedy have shared the track.
Four years ago, before either had even stepped foot on Loyola’s campus, the pair were both members of the University of Wisconsin-Madison track and cross country program. Watcke was a redshirt first-year, and Kennedy was in his eighth and final season as coach.
After finishing four years at Wisconsin and entering the transfer portal as a graduate, Watcke said she received a call from Kennedy expressing interest in her joining the program at Loyola.
When the Hinsdale, Ill. native visited Rogers Park for the first time, she said she loved the campus and the team. Watcke said she was excited to be part of the momentum she felt was building in the program.
Before Watcke joined this past fall, the Loyola women’s cross country team were winners of five straight conference championships — three in the Missouri Valley Conference and two back-to-back championships in the Atlantic 10.
When the women’s team competed for the A10 championship this year, Watcke was one of four Ramblers to simultaneously cross the line to maintain Loyola’s conference title streak.
With the 2025 indoor track and field season kicking off last weekend, Watcke has found success once again, taking first place in the women’s mile event at the Hawkeye Invitational.
“It’s fun getting back on the indoor track,” Watcke said. “It was my first week back on campus from winter break so it was exciting to get back with the team and get rolling right into the season.”
Watcke has continued to roll as the track season picks up. At the Notre Dame Invitational, she set her personal best and program record with a mile time of 4:39.66, earning her second place in the event.
While she’s flourished at Loyola, Watcke said she faced significant challenges while at Wisconsin. In the spring of 2022, Watcke and her teammates lost a close friend and teammate when third-year Sarah Shulze died by suicide.
“It’s definitely changed me,” Watcke said. “Sarah was such a great friend and teammate. Definitely at Wisconsin and here too, everyone knows what happened. At Wisconsin, we really leaned on each other, and it opened our eyes to how important mental health is in athletics.”
Since her death, Sarah’s parents started the Sarah Shulze Foundation in her honor to support “the causes dearest to her — mental health, student athletics and women’s rights,” according to their website.
The charity remains active in Wisconsin and even hosted a walk in Evanston over the summer, which Watcke participated in alongside fourth-year Alex Morris. Watcke said she believed the walk demonstrated her teammates’ dedication to mental health.
Watcke said the death of her teammate changed her as an athlete and as a teammate in helping destigmatize mental health and checking up on teammates when something seems wrong.
“If someone seems off at practice, people will check in on them,” Watcke said. “The coaches are really great about it too. I’ve even noticed if I’ve been off a day or two, people will text me and check in or talk to me after practice, and I think that goes a long way. “
The team’s initiative goes even further than just the bond they’ve formed with each other.
Along with attending the walk for Shulze over the summer, Morris helped work with the coaches on getting the team to wear green ribbons — the color of mental health awareness — on their uniform to match the ones Watcke once wore with Wisconsin.
Watcke said she appreciated the gesture by Morris and the team, as it was nice to bring the tradition of honoring Shulze with her to Loyola.
Even today, Watcke said she still checks in on Shulze’s parents every so often just to see how they’re doing.
As her season rolls on, Watcke said she’s excited to make the most of her last indoor and outdoor track seasons at Loyola, taking it one race at a time before graduating with her master’s degree in international relations and affairs.
You can learn more about the Sarah Shulze foundation on their website.
https://sarahshulzefoundation.org
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