Surrounded by family, coaches and friends, Mount St. Mary senior Rachel McGhee made official her commitment to continue her academic career at Hendrix College and run cross country for the Warriors next year. At the signing event MSM Cross Country Coach Chuck Toomer commented that Rachel’s commitment reflects her Personal Record or highest achievement, as all cross country runners strive for and push toward their own personal bests.
Although an injury slowed down Rachel’s senior year records, her hopes for college are to get faster and meet people willing to run a marathon with her. While she doesn’t expect to be the fastest runner on the team, she explains that her greatest strengths lie in the long distance runs.
“My favorite distance is the 10K,” Rachel said, preferring it to the shorter 5K and track events. She added, “It’s easier for me to know how hard to push myself because my biggest problem with running is that I always have excess energy at the end.”
Part of balancing the energy and workload for Rachel next year will be finding the sweet spot in managing her time between her athletic and academic life. She plans to study law at Hendrix College and says that she is equally excited about all of the academic opportunities the college affords, especially the Study Abroad Programs.
“I’m really excited to be able to go to a classroom that’s similar to Mount because they’re small and the professors really care about you,” said Rachel. She admitted that when deciding between Notre Dame and Hendrix, the choice ultimately came down to the level of personal attention she received from the staff, coach and ambassadors at Hendrix, and even the President of the College, who greeted her by name during a tour of the campus.
Rachel laughs about her initial hesitation to run cross country in college, adding that the sport she loves is one that is used as a punishment in many other sports, though she came around in the end.
“I realized that I really do enjoy cross country and the program,” Rachel said. “Being able to continue running competitively and making new friendships through it was an offer I couldn’t refuse.”