The brothers of Alpha Chi Rho hosted their third annual Warrior Mike 5K Saturday morning in honor of their fraternity brother, Michael Fraser.

Two years ago, Fraser was involved in a diving accident that caused breaks on his cervical vertebrae and bruised his spinal cord. Ever since then the fraternity has hosted the 5K at Robert Morris to raise money for Fraser and his family. Fraser and his family made an appearance at the event and we’re very touched by all the support.

“I just wanted to thank everybody that came,” Fraser said. “Friends, family, even people that I don’t like. And it was a really good time. It was a rough run but I appreciate everything.”

The fraternity had many students sign up to support the cause and to run the 5K. With the sun shining and a rainless day, everyone was excited to run.

“It goes the whole way around campus and then there’s another lap back through campus,” said fraternity brother Brandon Catherman. “And of course being here at Robert Morris there’s a lot of hills so it’s definitely treacherous.”

One of AXP’s fraternity brothers Caleb Pasquale said that Fraser has been a very close friend of his for a long time.

“He was one of the first people I met on campus,” said Pasquale. “He was so energetic and it was great because he brought a lot of energy to the room wherever he came.”

The participants for the 5K gathered on the Nicholson lawn to begin. Before the race they were led by John Tucci to honor America.

“I’m so glad to be here for this special event for Mike Fraser and his family,” said Tucci. “And for the fraternity, it was so nice to see the sororities and fraternities and everyone come up.”

Two of the runners, Ryan Brown and Andrew Birk, were also very proud to participate. They loved that they not only got a chance to go out and run, but that they ran for such a great cause.

“I haven’t ran maybe since the spring competitively,” said Birk. “So it was kinda fun to get back out there and compete for once.”

This was the first time Brown and Birk had ever met Fraser, so they were both to get that opportunity and help the cause.

“It was cool to see Mike here for the race,” said Brown. “I’ve heard about him, I’ve just never met him.”

After getting to meet Fraser, both Brown and Birk said that he was definitely a nice guy despite all he was going through.

“It’s definitely nice to see him out here. I never met him before but he’s a cool guy,” said Birk. “Very smiley despite what he’s been going through. It’s cool to see him out here and really know what your money’s going towards.”

The first place runner for the men was Ryan Brown and the first place runner for the girls was Emily Kalla.