by Chris Chandler

For College of Charleston brother-sister duo Crew Kosiorek and Jace Kosiorek, cross country has been an activity that has held them together for nearly a decade.

Hailing from Boiling Springs, a little town of just over 8,000 people north of Spartanburg, South Carolina, the Kosioreks have competed together the last three years as members of the College’s men’s and women’s cross country teams, which will compete at the Colonial Athletic Association’s Cross Cross Country Championships on Oct. 28, 2017.

“Growing up, I never knew what sport I wanted to get into,” said Jace, a junior majoring in marketing. “I wasn’t good at softball, gymnastics was a hard pass and I was all right at volleyball. Then, our older brother started running and I gravitated toward that.”

Running runs in the family. The Kosiorek’s older brother, Sage, was a distance runner at Butler University and graduated in 2016.

“I started running in seventh grade and I remember hating it,” recalled Crew, a senior majoring in hospitality & tourism management. “But, my mom (Amanda) would always remind me that, ‘if you start something, you have to finish it.’ She told me to finish the season, and as long as I did that, I could do whatever I wanted. That sounded great to me and I couldn’t wait for the season to be over. But sure enough, I started to like the competition of it more-and-more. By the end of the year, I loved it and stuck with it ever since.”

Crew committed to The College after his senior season came to an end at Boiling Springs High School. To this day, it’s unclear whose idea that was.

“According to Jace, she mentioned Charleston before I’d ever heard of it,” he said. “She says that I picked her school, but I don’t know about that. What I do know is that I did a huge college search and e-mailed a lot of coaches. I had a great visit here. (Former CofC runner) Nick Putnam was my host and he was awesome. Overall, it was just a really good fit. Not only is Charleston one of the best cities in the world, CofC had the major I wanted – hospitality and tourism management – and I was sold.”

When it was her turn to pick a college a year later, Jace had a clearer picture of what she wanted in mind.

“When I was looking at colleges, I had no idea what I wanted to major in,” she said. “I always liked CofC, because it was located in such a great city. All of my siblings and I had grown up really close. I visited Crew a lot during his freshman year and I would hang out with him. I also had the chance to meet the team and be around them, too. By the time it came time to choose a school, this place was already really familiar to me and it made the choice obvious.”

Read the full story at CofCSports.com.

Feature photo by Michael Wiser.