After an illustrious running career at Fredonia High School that concluded in 2020, Brown earned a Division-I athletic scholarship to continue her track and field career at the University of Pittsburgh. Since her arrival, Brown has continued to rack up accolades at her new home at Pitt.

“One of the things I was looking for in a program was being able to compete and not be on the sidelines,” Brown said. “Being able to get my racing legs and perform has made me a better athlete.”

Brown recently broke a school record at Pitt in the women’s 300m steeplechase with a time of 10:13.40. She broke the school record at the Raleigh Relays at North Carolina State University and finished fifth overall at the event.

Last year, Brown took 10th in the steeplechase at the 2022 ACC Championships. She also qualified for the preliminary round of the NCAA Championship in the same event. But now, Brown sets her sights on an even bigger goal.

Photo courtesy of Matt Hawley, Pitt Athletics Fredonia native Emily Brown recently set the University of Pittsburgh school record in the steeplechase event as an NCAA Division I runner.

“Now that I have a school record, I’m trying to make Nationals,” Brown said. “Having those goals foreseeable makes me even more focused.”

While at Fredonia, Brown set a school record in the 3,000m and qualified for the 5K Nationals. She also competed in the NY State Federation Meet and the New Balance Nationals. Brown won the McQuaid Invitational, finished 12th at the State Championships in cross country, and qualified for states in all three running seasons in 2019. She was named 2019 OBSERVER Female Athlete of the Year.

Despite her incredible list of high school accolades, Brown began her collegiate career with low expectations, knowing the jump to D I would be a big adjustment.

“My first goal was I just wanted to compete and have my coach know who I was,” Brown said. “I’m just happy to be here. I love running and racing.”

In 2020, Brown competed in one cross country meet during an abbreviated season due to the pandemic. But once her career got going, she never slowed. Now as a junior at Pitt, Brown is doing just what she did at Fredonia — setting high marks across the board.

OBSERVER Photo by Braden Carmen Emily Brown is shown wearing Pitt attire after officially signing her Division I NCAA National Letter of Intent at Fredonia High School in January 2020.

Brown now ranks in the top 10 at Pitt in the 1500m, the 3000m, the mile run, and as the anchor leg of the distance medley relay team, which is seventh in school history. She has also been recognized as the PNC Achiever of the Week.

“I’ve gotten to run a lot of different races since I’ve been here, which has been nice, especially because a lot of people go to college and get specialized,” Brown said.

During her time at Pitt, Brown has also shaved more than two minutes off her 5K time. “That’s a really exciting improvement of mine,” she said.

Being a Division I athlete wasn’t enough of a challenge for Brown, as she also decided to take on extra classwork as a dual-major, in anthropology along with ecology and evolution.

“Academically, it has become more exciting,” Brown said. “Now I’m studying things I’m interested in.”

Brown is every bit as successful in the classroom as she is on the track. She has earned All-ACC Academic Team honors for all three running seasons throughout her time at Pitt.

Almost every week, Brown gets an escape from city life in Pittsburgh when the team goes on long-distance training runs on trails outside of the city. “The one thing that I’m surprised by is that the running locations are amazing,” Brown said.

Brown described a Rails to Trails track the team visits to train in the countryside. “It’s nice because it’s kind of our escape from the city every week,” she said.

In the new world of major college athletics, new laws regarding an athlete’s ability to profit off their name, image, and likeness (NIL) allow for more opportunities for student-athletes in major athletic programs. At Pitt — an Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) program among the most recognizable college athletic brands in the country — Brown has capitalized on building her brand.

“Being a part of a bigger program, I’ve been able to do a lot of stuff through NIL,” Brown said. She highlighted affiliations with Dunkin’ Donuts and P3R — an organizer of the Pittsburgh Marathon. “Being a part of that has been really fun,” Brown said.

Brown has also connected with Heartbreak Hill Running Company, “a community of runners committed to the success of each other,” according to its website, heartbreak.run.

“Heartbreak Run connected me with a lot of other athletes and runners on social media. It gave me a lot of connections and I made friends all over the country,” Brown said.

Brown plans to utilize a fifth year of eligibility with the program awarded by the NCAA due to the COVID-19 pandemic. That gives her two more years of eligibility remaining after this season concludes to continue to improve alongside her teammates.

“I feel like every year this program has grown,” Brown said. “Competitively as a team we’re improving, and we have become more of a family. … It’s been really exciting to see the growth of the team and to be a part of that. I knew it was a growing program and that’s something I wanted to be a part of.”

Through all her success so far, the greatest goal of all that Brown has set for herself is still on the horizon. “The Olympic Trials are next year, and that’s definitely a goal I have in mind,” she said. “My goal is to keep improving every day.”

At Brown’s signing in the Fredonia school library in January 2020, her high school coach Carol Zirkle said, “Her commitment to be the best she can be and to make her teammates the best they can be is unbelievable. There’s no one that even comes close to her that I’ve coached.”

Already, Brown has lived up to that praise, and then some.

“If you love it, that’s the thing that will bring you to bigger stages,” Brown said after finalizing her commitment three years ago. “The love that you have for your sport is the whole point of it all.”