2019 recruit

Aidan Fitzgerald, University of Portland

Fitzgerald made waves last fall when he shattered a 31-year-old school record in the 5-kilometer distance with a time of 15 minutes, 5.31 seconds at the Desert Twilight XC Festival in Arizona. The University of Portland, one of the nation’s most storied programs, noticed. Fitzgerald chose Portland over a host of other famed running programs, including the University of Colorado at Boulder, Colorado State University, Portland State University, Chico State University, the University of Wyoming and the University of Washington.
“The history of Portland, and really all of Oregon for distance running, is special, and it was one of the reasons I checked it out was because of the history surrounding the program,” Fitzgerald said. “The value that the community and the city of Portland put on running is hard to top. The coaches and team were great, and I knew it was the place for me.”
In the last two seasons, the Pilots have been close to winning the NCAA Division I national championship after they finished second in 2017 and third last fall. Fitzgerald, son of Mike and Shari, is undecided on his major but is considering studying environmental science, ethics or possibly law.