West Virginia University sophomore cross country runner Charlotte Wood has genetics on her side.
 
Her father, Dan, was a member of the Canadian national hockey team that participated in the 1984 Winter Olympic Games in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia.
 
"Honestly, it doesn't really seem now like he played in the Olympics so long ago," she says. "He's just kind of my dad, but I began realizing how big of a deal that was and how much he must have worked for that opportunity."
 
The Bracebridge, Ontario, resident also experienced international competition earlier this year when she made the Canadian national cross country team that competed in the IAAF World Championships in Trinidad and Denmark.
 
"It was quite an experience," she admits. "I honestly never thought that I was going to be able to qualify for this starting last year and each week we just kept progressing and I went to the trials and I qualified for the team. Then, I got two amazing opportunities to represent my country in Trinidad and Denmark.
 
"Being able to represent Team Canada and knowing my father did that for a different sport, but a well-known Canadian sport, I knew how much pride my dad had in me and how much support was coming from my family back home," she adds. "I hope, genetically, it's helped me a bit, but it's also shown me that you can accomplish amazing goals if you love your sport and you work hard."
 
Wood says her interest in West Virginia University developed out of a telephone conversation she had with veteran Mountaineer coach Sean Cleary.
 
"One morning I got a call from Coach Cleary, and I just talked with him on the phone for about an hour and right away, I just found a connection. As soon as I came on my visit, I connected with the athletes right away," she says.
 
The exercise physiology major is also a dedicated student with a goal of helping others when her running career is finished.
 
"I know at the end of the day I am a student above an athlete and when I finish running I want the opportunity to pursue a career I want to do for the rest of my life," she says. "I'm super-interested in the physiology of the body and how it works. It will help me, but eventually, hopefully, it will help other people."
 
This weekend, Wood is hopeful of helping her team to a high finish at the Big 12 Cross Country Championships taking place in Waco, Texas.
 
Recently, Wood was the second Mountaineer runner to cross the finish line at the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational in Madison, Wisconsin.
 
The team's other big meets leading up to this year's Big 12s were at the Spiked Shoe Invitational at Penn State where WVU placed fourth, and the Chile Pepper Cross Country Festival in Fayetteville, Arkansas, where WVU finished third.
 
This year's Mid-Atlantic Regional race will take place on Friday, Nov. 15, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The Mountaineers ran that course earlier this year and placed third at the Lehigh Invitational.
 
"The best thing is being able to hang out with my best friends every single day, but also just how everybody on the team is a group of girls just bringing each other up every single day," she says. "(When) one person accomplishes something it's a trickle-effect through the whole team. When one person does it, you know the rest of the team can do it as well."
 
Life as a Mountaineer was produced by Scott Bartlett and presented by WVU Medicine.