Graduate students Margaret Connelly and Kate DeSimone are new to Iowa State this year but are no strangers to college.

DeSimone and Connelly graduated from Brown University last spring with one year of eligibility remaining to run cross country and track. Because the Ivy League does not allow a fifth year, DeSimone and Connelly could not return to Brown and chose to enroll at Iowa State.

“I tell them it’s their semi-pro year,” said ISU coach Andrea Grove-McDonough. “Not to downgrade the academic vigor here at Iowa State, but it’s a little different than what they were going through at the Ivy League. It takes a little pressure off of them.”

While the pair of runners took separate paths to discovering cross country and track, they found each other in Rhode Island and have stuck together for the past five years.

Connelly said she first began running when she was in fifth grade because her mother was her grade school coach. Her two older brothers also ran and Connelly tagged along with them during their practices.

DeSimone ran track to stay in shape for soccer in high school at first but switched to just running during her junior year. Her junior year was the first year she began running cross country.

“I figured out that I was better at running than I was at soccer, so it seemed like a natural thing to do,” DeSimone said.

Despite leaving their homes in the Midwest, DeSimone and Connelly said attending Brown was an easy decision.

“I was looking at a bunch of schools both for academics and I knew running would be a big part of what I wanted to do in college,” DeSimone said. “I took a lot of visits and Brown was my last one. It just really clicked.”

Having family on the East Coast also helped make their decisions easier.

“I was attracted because I got a postcard in the mail from Coach and decided to take a visit on a whim because my brother went to Providence College, which was just two miles away,” Connelly said. “When I dropped him off at school, I visited [Providence College] and Brown. I not only fell in love with the academic part, but also the team aspect, the whole environment and the city vibe. The campus was everything I was looking for in a school.”

The duo graduated from Brown last spring with lots of memories and accomplishments.

“The regional meet qualifying for nationals my junior year [was my greatest memory]. I placed seventh in the region and qualified individually,” Connelly said. “My close second was Heps, our conference championship meet that same year. Olivia Mickle, Heidi Caldwell and myself placed in the top 10, so doing it together was pretty special.”

DeSimone said her greatest memory came during one of her performances in the one mile run during last year’s indoor season.

“It was just a big breakthrough after lots of season injuries and non-quality performances,” DeSimone said. “Everything just finally clicked for one race.”

Grove-McDonough was the coach for the Connecticut women’s cross country team the year Connelly qualified for nationals.

“I was familiar with Margaret particularly because of the year that she made NCAA cross,” Grove-McDonough said. “My athletes were kind of in the mix at the front too where she was so I knew who she was and what she’d done.”

After finding out Connelly and DeSimone had a year of eligibility and both were interested in pursuing a graduate degree, Grove-McDonough recruited them as she would any other recruit.

Grove-McDonough said the two runners are a great addition to the team. They bring experience and leadership along with depth to an already deep roster.

“They come in as upperclassmen, really as super seniors,” Grove-McDonough said. “There’s a lot less drama, a lot less transition. We’re less concerned about their ability to transition in college and be successful because they’ve already shown that they can do that.”

Connelly and DeSimone will complete their two-year graduate program next year and plan to stay involved with the team once the season ends.