LRC's Founding from LRC's 2nd President-Jacob Dryer

Founder Mark Fairley’s purpose of LRC, how it would benefit the university and honor God:

“To connect runners around Liberty University campus and create an environment of positivity around the sport of running.”

“It would connect runners and track athletes of all levels to come together with the goal of using our talents to bring glory to God and enjoy the gifts He has given us for His glory.”

“We will keep Him at the epicenter of all we do. We will acknowledge Him for the ability to run and we will rely on Him for strength and wisdom in our pursuits.”

4/5/25 from Jacob Dryer, LRC Founding-Member and 2nd President of LRC, on the founding of Liberty Running Club:

Liberty Running Club began the fall of 2020 and became an official Student Government Association Club in the spring of 2022. The original founders were a group of triathlon and D1 attempted walk-on guys. Mark Fairley is the creator and founder. Other notable founders included Joshua Harden, Carter Leach, Joshua Quigg, Jack Pfizer, McKenzie Voy, Benjamin Bauserman, Hayden Russell, Serratt Nadong, Jack Martello and a few others. With COVID and the difficulty of making the D1 team, a lot of people who tried out didn’t make it. Mark, who was on the triathlon team, reached out to some of those individuals and offered to help train them. They began meeting on the mountain and running together. These meetings continued through the fall of 2020 into the spring of 2021.

That spring, they moved down to main campus in the hopes to find more runners. They would meet at 7 AM on Tuesday at the track because Mark had an in as a track team GSA. They placed posters around campus to raise interest and visibility. The poster campaign yielded about 15 new individuals such as the Cosentino brothers. Some of the early instagram posts from that time include footage from the time trials they did. At this point, the club was made up of members of the triathlon team and others who had heard about either from a poster or word-of-mouth. By the fall of 2022, the meetings had been moved to Tuesday evenings at 7:30 PM with growing numbers. The summer leading into that time, similar to how LRC operates now, LRC provided summer training. The club grew from 15 or so people to 20-25 that fall. The first official LRC time trial with the actual timers was that fall of 2021 that really helped kickstart the club and brought notable recent graduates such as Kyle Moore and Skylar Waechter.

Mark then decided to look into becoming an SGA club. Then, one random Tuesday, he brought a paper to club and had the original 15 or so individuals sign it. He did not share what the signatures were for, but this sheet has been saved as a PDF and is a part of the LRC constitution. This granted the club provisional status. That spring, 2022, Mark reached out to the club asking for officers to help him out. They attended the All Clubs Meeting that spring and figured out Mark was not eligible to be the LRC President since he was a graduate student. That original group of officers then began appointing individuals to various roles. Mark had to resign as President, but he stepped in as the Coach.

Jacob Dryer was nominated to be President. Josiah Fowler was Vice President. Joshua Harden was the treasurer. Carter Leach and Josh Quigg kept running the social media page and are the producers of the older posts on the social media page. While Angelo Cosentino wasn’t there initially, he was the original Director of Logistics. He helped get a lot of gear in line, designed the uniforms, and had a heavy hand with helping Jacob Dryer in becoming a NIRCA club. They filled that application in the summer of 2022, got approved, and had the first NIRCA season in the fall of 2022.

The group’s dynamic has gone through several phases since its founding. The original iteration of the club on the mountain was a very serious group of runners who were very serious about training. When they descended from the mountain, it became much more casual. Mark would provide workouts, and they would go on the Saturday long runs. There was a Bible study back then, too. The group was very close knit. People got along with each other and did a lot of stuff together.

The winter of 2022-2023 attendance dropped to 8 to 12 consistent runners again before attendance exploded in the fall of 2024 leading LRC to having 30 consistent up to 50 people at a practice. The group was made up of mostly guys until 2024 where the group became more 50/50 and now has slightly more women.

Many leadership processes have become much more streamlined since the founding of the club such as the consolidation of faculty involvement. Overall, the dynamic started as a tight knit smaller group who were very serious about running but also enjoyed being together. Then, after several of the original members graduated, there was a lull followed by the large growth LRC had in 2024 characterized by planned out social events in addition to the running times and a family-like feel.

-Spring 2026 Director of Communication