From Down Under to On Top: How William Sinclair’s Seen Success at Loyola

The U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Association ranked Loyola men’s cross country No. 30 for the first time in school history Oct. 7. The runner who helped get it done? Graduate William Sinclair.

Sinclair finished fourth overall at the Loyola Lakefront Invitational Oct. 3, propelling the Ramblers to a second-place team finish, only behind No.7 University of Wisconsin-Madison, and knocking off No. 16 University of North Carolina and No. 24 University of Washington to earn the university its highest-ever ranking.

While Sinclair’s Loyola career has already been full of highs, his path to Rogers Park wasn’t easy or expected.

A native of Tauwhare, New Zealand, and the oldest of eight, running wasn’t actually Sinclair’s first sport. He began his athletic career as a swimmer and said it was good aerobic fitness until he began running cross country in high school. 

Sinclair said he originally didn’t consider coming to run in America until he saw some of his friends talking with coaches at meets, so he began exploring the option and reaching out to coaches over email, prompting conversations.

One of the schools Sinclair reached out to was the University of Missouri. Coincidentally, their assistant coach and recruiting coordinator Stephen Smith was already in Australia visiting another recruit, so he flew to New Zealand, where they developed a strong relationship that led to Sinclair’s commitment. 

When Sinclair arrived in the United States in August 2020, the world was still in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic — luckily Missouri was one of the schools who continued to race throughout the pandemic, though he said the races were very different than those back home.

“Cross country in New Zealand is a lot more sort of mud and not as fast,” Sinclair said. “I found American college cross country racing a lot more fast and a lot more like the track, so that was kind of a different aspect.”

After three years of racing at Missouri, Sinclair entered the transfer portal, citing multiple coaching changes and suffering a grade four fracture in his pelvis which set him back and led to him wanting a change. 

Despite leaving after the spring 2023 season, Sinclair returned to his old stomping grounds Oct. 17 for the Missouri Pre-National Invite, where he placed 10th, an experience he described as a “homecoming.”

“It was cool being back on the course because I had trained on that course a lot in 2020 through to 2023,” Sinclair said. “It felt like kind of a homecoming cause I know that course like the back of my hand.”

His next home was at the University of North Florida, an experience he said he later regretted. Despite competing in the fall cross country season and indoor track season, Sinclair sat out of the spring season, saying he had mental health challenges and was in a bad place.

From that experience, Sinclair said he grew a lot as a person and athlete, learning to make better choices in his life, sleep schedule and diet, choosing to “be married to the game” to be the runner he wanted to be. 

Though he made a lot of those choices and changes himself, Sinclair said his teammate and roommate Mathis Chavand at his next college — Illinois State University — helped encourage the mindset of treating himself like a professional athlete and making running his lifestyle.

Before transferring to Illinois State, Sinclair said he was unsure if he even wanted to continue running and thought about going back to New Zealand for good. Ultimately, he decided to stick it out and see how good he could get at running with another year of dedication.

Sinclair certainly made the right decision, breaking the Illinois State and Missouri Valley Conference’s indoor 5K record at 13:45.46 and 8K record at 23:02.9.

After earning his interdisciplinary degree in business and political science, Sinclair entered the portal one last time, this time around finding himself at Loyola. The success Sinclair saw head coach Gavin Kennedy have with runners like James Lawrence, Chris Devaney and Ryan Martins encouraged him, thinking he could be the next in that line of greats.

Kennedy raved about Sinclair’s consistency against strong competition as one of the reasons he knew he would be a good fit in the program.

“What really stood out was his consistency — he wasn’t just competing at a high level; he was excelling in some of the toughest collegiate meets out there, including the NCAA cross country championships,” Kennedy said. “We knew he’d be a great fit for our culture here at Loyola because of the way he carries himself — hard-working, humble and team-focused. Since joining us, he’s only raised the bar, both in performance and in leadership.”

Since joining the Ramblers, Sinclair said Kennedy has only helped him continually improve, tailoring individual training and ensuring Sinclair gets the recovery he needs between each session to be in top form.

Now, Sinclair sets his sights on the A10 championships, where he looks to help Loyola win their third cross country championship in four years. 

“We’re sort of the team in the Atlantic 10 with a target on our backs,” Sinclair said. “All the teams want to take us down, so we just want to go there and treat it like a business trip and get the job done.”