Cross country star wins national title

LAWRENCE, Kan. - In her last season, her last cross country race and her last opportunity to become a champion, Katie McGregor struck gold.

The senior, in one of the toughest tests of her Michigan career, now can add 'first Michigan cross country national champion' to her resumé after taking first place in the NCAA Championship race yesterday in 16:47.

McGregor, trailing throughout much of first the two-thirds of the race, kept pushing while other runners fell behind, cruising to her seventh individual title of the season, but by far the biggest of her career.

"It hasn't hit me yet," the new champion said. "It was a good race, and there was a lot of good competition, but I had my team here with me."

McGregor earned her title by keeping her focus, even though she fell back to third and fourth place early in the race.

Michigan cross country runner Katie McGregor runs to victory in Lawrence, Kan. yesterday as she becomes Michigan's first-ever national cross country champion. GRAHAM K. JOHNSON/ University Daily Kansan

"There was Stanford, Arizona, and a few people up there," McGregor said. "I felt OK. I ran my own pace for the whole race. I didn't go out extremely fast. I just stayed up with the people I knew who were going to finish up in the front and let them pull me along."

But McGregor, by maintaining her pace, pushed ahead of two runners in the last 1,000 meters and the leader in the final 400.

"I don't know when exactly I broke away," McGregor said. "I just know that I passed (leader Amy Skieresz of Arizona) coming in with about 400 meters to go, trying to get to the front as fast as I could before someone else got up there.

"I felt good and that's why I ran well. I felt pretty tight today, I had lead feet in the last 300 meters, but I just pushed to the finish line."

McGregor earned the victory on one of the toughest courses in the country - Rim Rock Farm.

The trail was anything but smooth sailing. Little hills here, little valleys there, plus something called "Suicide Turn" kept things interesting.

"It was a fun course," McGregor said. "I had raced here two years ago and I just went out there and had fun with it."

Both on the podium and with her teammates, McGregor exuded a quiet self-confidence after her big win.

"It's just another race. It means a lot to me, but tomorrow, well, you can only hold onto it for so long," McGregor said. "It really takes a good coach, motivation and great teammates, they all helped me."

But history didn't write Michigan a team championship yesterday.

Elizabeth Kampfe, suffering from shin problems, thought she would have some troubles during the race, but thought she would still finish. She didn't.

Kampfe, whom Michigan coach Mike McGuire had big hopes for to lead the Wolverines to a top-five finish, dropped out in the middle of the race.

"I've had problems with my shins for the past 4-6 weeks, and it just didn't work for me today," Kampfe said. "It was physically pretty demanding on my legs, because of the fact that I had been running with pain before. The breaking point just came today at the wrong time."

After taking second at districts, Michigan was shooting for a high top-10 placing, but when one scorer falls, the team usually comes with her.

"Any time you take someone like Kampfe out with that type of potential for a low score, it definitely costs you," McGuire said. "We would have been seventh."

Kampfe will have a chance for redemption, because the Wolverines will count on her to lead the team next season.

McGregor, meanwhile, won't have a next year. But she still has one more season of indoor and outdoor track eligibility - and finishing her cross country career with a championship gave her the happy ending she had hoped for.

"It means a lot to me. I'm glad it ended this way, but I couldn't have done it without my team," McGregor said. "Sometimes the team, not the player, does make the champion."

11-24-98