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Anna Wilgenbusch

Episode 176

13 JUNE 2022

She was the University of Dallas’ first NCAA cross country two-time All-American. She holds the five thousand meter and ten thousand meter school records at the University of Dallas for track and field and the 5K and 6K school records for cross country. She was the only female NCAA Division III cross country All-American in the state of Texas in 2019 and 2021. She is headed to the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota to study for her master’s degree in Theology, and she writes and authors Catholic children’s books.

Notable guest quotes:

“I attended Holy Trinity Catholic elementary and middle school in Tallahassee, Florida.  They had just a wonderful Life Teen program, so, I was really involved in my youth group.”

“I went to Covecrest Catholic camps in the summer and really encountered the Lord there.”

“I went to a Catholic high school… and really discovered the beauty of the tradition of the faith.”

“I do try (to) reverence the day of rest, really, as a day where I can take a day off from training, if I am training, even at the university level sometimes I would cross train on Sundays, but usually I would really take that to be a very intentional day of rest.”

“Even in the repetition that we find so meditative in the rosary, I think that kind of translates into running a little bit of just your footfalls, step after step, mile after mile, kind of forming into this very meditative process of prayer.”

“My prayer before every race is just let this race be a prayer and just consciously uniting whatever suffering comes out of that experience with the cross, and that’s something that I find immensely fulfilling about running.”

“My team… went and volunteered at the convent of the Sacred Heart in Bloomington, Minnesota, where the Sisters of Pro Ecclesia Sancta live.”

“I have discerned for many years, and I’ve stayed in a convent in Peru, in Spain, and also in Florence, Italy.”

“Really, a heart of discernment is, getting to know the heart of Jesus.”

“I also taught catechesis with the program Totus Tuus in the summer of 2019… through the southern part of Minnesota… at different parishes.  It was a wonderful experience.”

Related link:

Anna’s books on Amazon

[This episode contains a prayer (poem) by Central Catholic High School (Pittsburgh, PA) Principal Ed Bernot, as seen in Play Like A Champion Today’s prayerbook for sports, God, Be In My Sport]