How Multi-Talented Molloy Pulls from Background in Orienteering

On Saturday morning, graduate Grace Molloy will take to the course at the NCAA Cross Country Championships in Charlottesville, Virginia. But before Molloy was ever running cross country in the U.S., she was competing internationally in the obscure sport of Orienteering in Europe.

Scotland, a mere 3,497 miles from East Lansing, is home to the Michigan State star. She was a member of the soccer, track and field, and orienteering clubs at the University of Oxford during her undergraduate program, where she studied physics.

Molloy graduated from Oxford in 2022 and wanted to come to the United States to experience the collegiate athlete training and racing scene. She chose MSU because of its strong track record in women's distance running and the connection she fostered with the coaching staff.

She knew she'd be on a quality team to train and race with if she came here. She was right, as the MSU women's cross-country team has won back-to-back Big Ten titles. Molloy finished 14th in the 2023 race and was honored as Second-Team All-Big Ten.

"She's been just a seamless fit since day one," MSU Director of Cross Country & Track and Field Lisa Breznau said. "It's like she's been here all along. She really fits in with our group and mentality. I don't think we would've won the big ten title that we won last year or had the success that we had without Grace being a part of our team."

Molloy got on the MSU roster by pitching herself as a three-sport athlete and student to Breznau. After many phone calls and video chats, they began the recruitment process in the winter of 2021, she was committed by spring 2022 and began running with the Spartans that fall.

"I looked her up, too," Breznau said. "This individual is doing what looks like to me, you know, intense mountain racing. So, after the first time we talked, I got to know her better… Every time we talked, I learned something new, and it just added to her resumé."

Breznau sees how orienteering brings a special aspect to Molloy's performance on the track and field team. The more resistance, like hills or mud in a long-distance course, is where Molloy thrives.

Molloy is now a finance graduate student, not knowing exactly her plans after she graduates, except that she will continue running one way or another.

Orienteering, an outdoor recreational and competitive sport, combines navigation, running, and mental sharpness. It involves using nothing but a map and compass to navigate through unfamiliar terrain to locate a series of control points, typically marked with orange and white flags, in the shortest possible time.

"It's really a family sport, often," Molloy said. "Almost everyone I know in orienteering, their parents do it too. My parents still do it too in the 50-year-old category. They began taking me along as soon as I could walk. I started doing it myself when I was around eight. When I was 12, I got into the Scottish junior squad, and from there I started going on weekends away without my parents and did training camps, taking it a little bit more seriously."

She has been orienteering for as long as she can remember. Her parents, Jonathan and Roma Molloy, introduced her to the complicated sport when she was young, taking her along the mapped-out trails through terrain or cities. She has gone on to win a gold medal and two bronze medals at the 2019 Junior Orienteering Championships.

Molloy has also coached orienteering. She said the sport's rules are easily understood, but things become more challenging when reading the maps. The details of the symbol meanings, determining the best routes to the control points, while being quick on the course can be hard.

"The most complex thing to understand is some of the detailed contours in hill shapes, and that takes a little longer for someone to interpret," Molloy said.

Molloy's enthusiasm for orienteering shines through as she mentions the intricacies of the sport and the unique opportunities it has brought her along the way.

"I really love that you can balance some sort of skill and technique with the running side of it," Molloy said. "I get to go to so many cool places. The thing with orienteering is that you can't do it in the same spot every time or there's no navigational challenge which sometimes makes it hard to train for, but it also means I get to go to lots of different parts of the country that others haven't been to… I've been competing for Great Britain since I was 15, so I've been able to go abroad several times a year… and made lots of great friends through the sport."

Each member of MSU's long distance group trains within their own parameters of training, determining how much they run. Molloy runs 65-70 miles per week with two hard workout sessions. Her version of resting is an easy-paced run. She adds supplementary training like sprinting, drills and mobility exercises with the cross-country team.

"A lot of the physical training for orienteering and running are very similar," Molloy said. "Most of the training I do for orienteering is just running. You just put a little more focus on the running in terrain instead of tracks. In the future I plan to go back and do orienteering again, so if I can improve my speed whilst I'm here, that would really help."

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How Multi-Talented Molloy Pulls from Background in Orienteering

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