Toledo women’s cross country team wins sixth MAC title in program history

The University of Toledo women’s cross-country team placed themselves atop the Mid-American Conference last Saturday, taking home first place at the MAC Championships.

UT took home their sixth-ever MAC Championship title with a team-score of 48. Five Rockets finished within the top 15 during the championships. Eastern Michigan finished in second place with 69 points, and last year’s champions, Miami of Ohio, finished in a somewhat distant third with 103 points.

“It feels great,” said sophomore runner Janelle Noe when asked about the victory. “It was actually the first MAC championship I ran in.”

The experience was nothing new for the Rockets’ senior members, and the younger runners on the team knew what it meant to win their graduating teammates the conference title.

Especially after last year, when the Rockets lost in a devastating fashion, falling three points short to Miami.

“It’s exciting,” said junior Priscilla Timmons. “It’s also emotional since we have a lot of seniors on our team. Last year we lost by three points, so to come back and win this year was awesome.”

It certainly wasn’t an easy goal to accomplish, but the Rockets managed to stay focused all season.

“We have a team full of hardworking individuals,” said head coach Linh Nguyen, who was named Women’s Coach of the Year following his team’s victory. “We put in a lot of hard work during the summer.”

The runners on his team echoed that sentiment.

“Our workouts were awesome,” Timmons said. “Coach Linh had training in place for us.

“Winning the MAC was a huge goal of ours.”

That kind of confidence tends to start at the top, and the Rockets are no different.

“When we set our goals in the preseason, winning the MAC was a byproduct of what we wanted to accomplish,” Nguyen said. “We focused internally. We didn’t worry about rankings or who we beat, we focused on what we did and how we could get better. There’s nothing we can do about what other teams do.”

A successful season left the Rockets with a positive outlook.

“We learned to keep striving towards your goals and never give up,” Timmons said. “Stay motivated.”

In a sport like cross country, staying together and working as a team can be essential, something UT’s squad understands.

“Staying close in races really helped us,” Noe said. “Teamwork was important.”

Toledo’s work isn’t done. The Rockets are happy with a MAC championship, but they want to make sure to avoid complacency, as regionals and nationals loom in the near future.

“Our season isn’t over yet,” Timmons said. “We want to do well at regionals and get a strong qualifying spot for nationals.”

Things are not going to get easier for the Rockets. Toledo will travel back to Wisconsin, where they ran at the Wisconsin Adidas Invitational on Oct. 17, for regionals, which begin Friday, Nov. 14.

“We’re happy we won the MAC, it was exciting,” Nguyen said. “But we were back up at 7 a.m. Sunday morning, preparing for regionals.”