If you mix running, cooking and knitting together what do you get?

A record-breaking cross country runner.

Ronni Kordrupel, who spends her free time cooking and knitting, holds two cross-country records at SUNY Buffalo State.  

“I definitely enjoy being in the kitchen and I enjoy knitting,” Kordrupel said.

Kordrupel works at a country club over the summer where she has gained experience cooking and on bus rides to meets she is often found knitting.  

Kordrupel has broken both the Women’s 6K and 5K records at Buffalo State. She also made the All-SUNYAC second team this year, her second in a row.

With her second top-10 finish at SUNYACs in October, Kordrupel became an inductee into the conference’s Women’s Cross Country Championship Hall of Fame.

In November, she made history becoming the first-ever Buffalo State athlete to compete at the NCAA D-III Women’s Cross Country Championships.

For cross-country interim head coach Nicole Mehlman-Davidow, getting to watch one of her runners break records is an exciting experience.

“Every week it’s ‘what is she going to do this week?’ and a lot of it starts with practice and how she has run at practice and her focus,” Mehlman-Davidow said. “She’s training with the Men’s team at times and I think the other women feed off her and they want to be better.”

The journey for Kordrupel to becoming a record holder at Buffalo State is a winding one. Kordrupel originally played tennis as a fall sport in high school, while also running track and field.

“My sophomore year I ran the 800 at sectionals and I ran a 2.29 which sub-2.30 basically means you’re a legitimate runner, at least at the high school level,” Kordrupel said. “Then my teammates they got super excited and they’re like ‘come on Ronni I know you play tennis but this fall you have to run cross-country with us’ and then next thing you know I’m on the cross-country team.”

Choosing Buffalo State was a little bit easier of a path for Kordrupel. She was contacted by other schools, but Buffalo State was the most aggressive school recruiting her.

“It was just the best fit all around, for all three seasons,” Kordrupel said.

Kordrupel also said she looked into the records at Buffalo State before she committed. The previous records were faster than her own personal records out of high school, but Kordrupel said she felt they were within her grasp. Once she broke the first record, she wasn’t going to stop.

“I knew they were within my grasp with the way I was dropping time in high school, it was all lining up,” Kordrupel said. “Once I can hit one, I know I can hit the rest of them so it was kind of addicting. I just want to keep going.”

As far as things Kordrupel still wants to accomplish while at Buffalo State making it to the SUNYAC championships for track and field in the winter and spring top of the list.