Stretch Run

Redshirt senior Megan O'Neil has been one of the many bright spots for the Central Michigan women's cross country team this season.

She opened the season with a win at CMU's annual Jeff Drenth Memorial, and she has posted top-50 performances against very strong fields at Notre Dame and at Pre-Nationals in Madison, Wis. She was 46^th of 154 runners at Notre Dame, and was 45^th of 239 at Pre-Nationals.

While O'Neil has been so dominant throughout the season and throughout most of her CMU career, she didn't start out as a runner.

GROWING UP
O'Neil is from Stanwood, Mich. Before starting her running career, she tried basketball.

"I was like warming the bench most of the season, so it was a pretty exciting time," she said sarcastically.

With her father being a middle school cross country coach, O'Neil gave distance running a shot by attending some of the indoor track meets that CMU hosted.

"Well, I could be the worst kid on the basketball team, or I could try something else," O'Neil said of her decision to switch sports.

She was winning races, including the two-mile, by the sixth grade.

"I was like, 'Wow, this is better than being the worst kid on the basketball team,'" she said.

By the time O'Neil graduated from Chippewa Hills High School in Remus, she had put together a sterling running resumé and had attracted the attention of Big Ten programs as well as several Ivy League school.

She earned All-State honors a combined eight times in cross country and track & field and won state titles on the track in both the 800- and 1,600-meter runs.

COLLEGE
O'Neil left Michigan for Wisconsin, one of the nation's premier cross country programs. She soon transferred back home, enrolling at Central Michigan and joining the cross country/track & field program as a walk-on.

Matt Kaczor, who then oversaw both of CMU's men's and women's cross country programs, welcomed the Michigan native. But it wasn't a smooth transition; the mental strain of transferring took a toll and it affected her running.

Early on, O'Neil was the slowest of Chippewas during workouts.

O'Neil credited her teammates and the positive vibe in the program, she was able to get out of the rut and started preforming better and started feeling better as well.

"There's this whole culture where the team is elevating each other, and that really helped me," O'Neil said. "As the years went on, I went into the top three or the top two. I've been moving up year to year and it's all been nice with the CMU culture."

TRAINING
During her training for cross country, O'Neil teamed up with CMU runners Hannah Davis and Natalie Beaulieu for runs as long as 15 miles.

For such runs, the trio traveled to Deerfield Park. After their workout, the runners established a unique tradition.

"On the way back (from Deerfield Park), we have this tradition where we listen to Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah and we sing along for the entire way back," O'Neil said. "After we get through a couple of 'hallelujahs,' we're open to suggestions from the radio."

O'Neil logged about 70 miles a week, much of by herself, listening to podcasts.

"I really like Malcolm Gladwell's Revisionist History, Radiolab, and This American Life," she said.

MAC CHAMPIONSHIPS
O'Neil's collegiate career is in the homestretch now. Saturday, she will run with her teammates in the Mid-American Conference Championships in Toledo. Then, in two weeks, it's the NCAA Great Lakes Regional where she and the Chippewas will attempt to qualify for the NCAA Championships.

O'Neil earned First Team All-MAC honors a year ago with a fifth-place finish in a career-best 20:58. She was 15^th – one spot shy of earning all-conference honors – in 2015; in 2016, she was ninth, earning Second Team All-MAC honors.

"This year, going into MACs is going to be really exciting in terms of a competitive race," she said. "In the past, it hasn't been obvious about who's going to win MACs, but there have been runners who are leaps and bounds better than all the other competitors.

"There are about seven to 10 (runners) that have all ran within three seconds of each other. So, there's just this huge range of people that have ran under 20:50 to 21:10 in the 6K. Anyone in that range can win.

"Every year, I've improved on my place at MACs, and if I can do that again it would be very exciting."

Central Michigan University Athletics

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