She could barely walk four years ago, but now is one of the fastest runners in Montclair State University history. Abigail Churchill is a class of 2026 graduate, but her name and legacy are etched in the record books forever.
Track and field has been her thing since middle school. Her grandfather, who happened to be a high school coach, finally got Churchill to join the track team when she was young following a lifetime of encouragement.
“You’re faster than some of my high schoolers,” Churchill recalls him saying during one of their practices. He retired from coaching before she started high school, but he made sure she was prepared for every school meet and 5k fundraiser.
“I definitely view it as an advantage,” she said. “Coming onto a team for the first time, you’re not automatically close with your coach. So if you have a question, it can be a little intimidating to go up to them for questions. So I always had [my grandfather] as a resource.”
By high school, she became a three-season athlete — indoor track, cross country and outdoor track. Running had become a part of her routine, and there was no taking it out.
While there was a “push through the pain” mentality in high school, Churchill suffered an avulsion fracture on her hip from overuse. She recalls her later injuries as an annual occurrence, until she came to Montclair State.
After starting her collegiate career at Rowan, Abigail Churchill transferred to Montclair State, finding familiarity from old ties to the coaching staff.
Photo courtesy of Montclair State Athletics
Churchill didn’t start out her college career as a Red Hawk, but rather as a Prof. She committed to Rowan University her senior year of high school and defended the honor of Whoo RU for the next two years.
About halfway through her freshman year at Rowan, Churchill checked off her annual injury. A simple stress fracture didn’t seem to pose a huge threat to her season, but her hip had other plans.
“When I was coming back from it, I didn’t fully let it heal,” Churchill admitted. “I’ll be honest, when I was, kind of, limping through the runs, I ended up breaking my hip on the other side, because I was favoring it so much.”
In October of 2022, Churchill placed 16th at the New Jersey Athletic (NJAC) Conference Cross Country Championships — while running on a broken leg.
“With stress fractures, you’re able to run through them,” she says, making non-runners wincing in confusion. “The pain in it is so strange. The pain happens when you stop running…but while you’re in the motion, it doesn’t even hurt that much, so it’s difficult to tell yourself that you need to stop running.”
After the race, Churchill recalls feeling immense pain, and knowing it was time for a doctor’s visit. The news of the broken hip followed soon thereafter. The inevitable hip surgery benched her from spring track, and she wouldn’t compete again until September of 2023.
Left to learn how to walk again, Churchill felt this was her biggest setback.
“That was the first injury where I feel like I started from square one,” she said. “When I was coming back from it mentally, it was really tough in the beginning…but I think it gave me a new respect and appreciation for people that don’t run consistently, because I forgot what it felt like to be a new runner.”
Although she felt like a new runner, and her 2022-23 season came to a halt, quitting was never an option.
"Running is such a big part of my lifestyle," said Montclair State standout runner Abigail Churchill. "Even now, I can't imagine my life without it." Photo courtesy of Montclair State Athletics
“That is one thing I actually never even thought of,” she said. “Because running is such a big part of my lifestyle, where, even now, I can’t imagine my life without it…People have told me, though, ‘One more injury and you gotta stop, ’cause it’s not good for your body.’ [But] I will find every loophole to keep going.”
She sprung back her sophomore year, but that didn’t mean the surprises ended.
Before she committed to Rowan, she was recruited by Derick “Ringo” Adamson, the former head coach of the Rowan women’s track and field team.
“He was kind of the glue to the team,” she said. “He had a giant personality and that kind of rubbed off on everyone else. It was super positive and everything.”
Adamson left the program in October of 2023 after 14 years, leaving Churchill feeling lost.
“I guess that kind of put in perspective to us how much of the glue he was,” she said, “because it got to a point where his big personality wasn’t there, and everyone was kind of lost on what to what to do or who to follow, who to be inspired by…people were just looking for that feeling again that they had with Ringo.”
By the end of that year, Churchill had left the Rowan team and entered the transfer portal. Thankfully for the Red Hawks, former track and field coach Peter Tuohy was the next to gave her a call.
Tuohy, along with current coach Rich O’Connor, coached Churchill at Indian Hills high school before reconnecting at Montclair State. After she visited, she knew coming to the university was a risk worth taking.
“The biggest difference was — it wasn’t even so much in the running part,” she said. “It was the personalities I was surrounded by, because I had always had this mindset where you’re going to be the most successful, where you’re the most happy. So when I came here and realized how happy everyone was just to be here, it really rubbed off on me, and it made me happy to be here and excited to see everyone.”
Since starting at Montclair, her running has only gotten faster.
She holds the program record for the fastest time recorded in the 6k — 21:58.1 to be exact — and is the first person to break 22 minutes in the program’s history.
She finished in fifth place at the 2025 NJAC Cross Country Championships — the highest individual finish in program history.
And she is the first and only NCAA individual qualifier in program history. Last fall, she traveled to Spartanburg, S.C., for the NCAA Division III Cross Country National Championship. She was one of four women in the entire NJAC to compete.
“I'm gonna be honest, I crossed the finish line, and I don't think I stopped crying for the next half hour,” Montclair State track and field's Abigail Churchill said of her run at the 2025 Division III National Championship Meet.
Photo courtesy of Montclair State Athletics
“I’m gonna be honest, I crossed the finish line, and I don’t think I stopped crying for the next half hour,” she recalled. “I was so excited about it. It was something I always had in my mind.”
After a turbulent first two years, Churchill is proud to finish her collegiate career with a bang.
“Coming into my senior year, I had goals in my mind for time and performances, but none of it was regionals or nationals or anything like that,” she admitted. “Once we started getting closer to it, my coach started mentioning that nationals could be a possibility…the meet was a huge milestone and is something that I truly feel like I will be talking about with my kids when I’m older.”
In the NJAC Championships, Churchill competed in the 5k and 10k events. Then, it was graduation, and she did what every coach has trained her to do — finish strong.
Churchill graduated with a degree in Exercise Science. After all of those years at the doctor’s office and with the team trainer, Churchill wants to pass off the “patient” baton and become a physician assistant.
After injury recovery became part of Abigail Churchill's running career, she aims to move into a professional role as a physician assistant.
Photo courtesy of Montclair State Athletics
Still, she has no plans to stop running anytime soon. Frankly, her love of running isn’t stopping either.
“It’s the only sport — except for maybe swimming — that you get out exactly what you put in,” she said. “With track, if you don’t put in the work, you’re not going to get the times out of it. You can’t fake it at all. And I almost find it so much more rewarding that way.”
