Saturday, October 28
Bowling Green, Ohio
11 a.m.
Central Michigan University
vs
Mid-American Conference Championship
Photo by: Bowling Green State University Athletics
Paupore Wins MAC Championship; Women Finish 6th, Men 8th
10/28/2023 8:49:00 PM | Men's Cross Country, Women's Cross Country
Video Interview: Emily PauporeVideo Interview: Jenny SwietonMAC Video Interview: Emily PauporeWomen's ResultsMAC Women's RecapMAC Men's RecapMen's Results2023 MAC Championship CentralResults (TFRRS)MAC Photo GalleryPhoto GalleryPhoto Gallery 2
The redshirt-junior is the first individual MAC Champion for the Chippewa women's program
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio — "Just an awesome day."
Indeed it was for redshirt-junior Emily Paupore (Negaunee, Mich. / Negaunee) as she notched Central Michigan Cross Country's first-ever women's individual Mid-American Conference title Saturday afternoon, breaking the course record at Bowling Green State University by 11 seconds in 20:30.27. Her personal best was shaved by more than 18 seconds, breaking through a career time that had stood since September 30, 2022.
"I'm usually someone who comes on halfway through the race and feels good," Paupore pointed out. "Today I actually felt really good; I felt like the pace was comfortable through about 3k."
This did not prevent the MAC Scholar Athlete from feeling a slowdown midway through the race, but Head Coach Jenny Swieton was there for her when it mattered most.
"Going up the last hill, I started to doubt myself," Paupore said. "Having Jenny, especially around 5k when I was starting to doubt myself, just tell me what a privilege it is just to be able to run and have a supportive group of girls around me who are literally my best friends… being reminded the fact that I'm here is a gift, that really helped me."
The gravity of Paupore's performance showed through as Swieton fought through tears in reflecting on the race, and she thinks Paupore is the kind of person that her foes cannot root against.
"I think it's hard to put into words what [the MAC title] means, but she just works so hard every day." Swieton said. "She's there for her team and she's there for everybody else. She puts everybody else first and she truly just does it to celebrate the gifts she's been given and get everything out of herself.
"She's super, super fun to coach and she's somebody you have to root for no matter what. I'm sure every other MAC person roots for her even though they probably don't want to because she's just an amazing person."
The women's unit finished sixth for the fourth time since 2017. Redshirt-senior Anya Turner (Farmington, Mich. / Harrison) cracked the top-25 in 23rd (21:33.56) on a season-best effort while a trio of Chippewas finished 34th-36th: sophomore Jessie Gibbins (Loveland, Ohio) and freshman Kara Terakedis (Onsted, Mich. / Onsted) each found a new personal best at 21:49.07 and 21:50.71, respectively, while redshirt-junior Natalie Newcombe (Mecosta, Mich. / Chippewa Hills) came within four seconds of her PR from earlier this season at 21:56.55.
"[The women] went out and gave it everything they absolutely had." Swieton said. "They worked together as a team—our strength is in our pack—and I think that just watching them move through the race together, move up together, was really exciting to watch."
The Chippewa men had their own breakthrough day, as both sides of the program improved one place in the team standings over the 2022 event.
"The men started us off on a really good note; they outperformed their ranking they all gave everything they had. We had huge season bests and PRs out of them, and they just fought with heart for their team the whole way. I think that set the women up for a really good performance as well."
A top-25 finish for sophomore Blake Chipman (Flushing, Mich. / Flushing) came through a personal-best by more than 20 seconds (25:05.82) and a season-best of nearly 90 seconds.
"Blake ran lights out, knocked it out of the park with a huge PR. Our number six and seven were placers for us that helped our team score so it really was like a true team effort."
Redshirt-senior Gabe Goosen (Howard City, Mich. / Tri-County) was the next Chippewa at 25:31.79 in 43rd for nearly a 24-second improvement from his season-high set at Bradley two weeks ago. Within the next 20 seconds of the race, Central Michigan logged two PRs from freshman Aiden Smith (Adrian, Mich. / Adrian) [48th, 25:43.00] and sophomore Ethan Leitner (Tecumseh, Mich. / Tecumseh) [54th, 25:47.29], with the freshman posting a 67-second gain on his early-career mark.
"I think the men made a huge leap the last two meets, like maybe we're kind of staying steady and then all of a sudden, they were like 'okay let's do it' and they jumped forward which was awesome and so exciting to see."
Swieton believes Saturday's performances are elevated by a course not usually friendly to the stopwatch.
"We had a ton of PRs today and this is not a super-fast course; it's definitely not a PR course. To have so many men and women come out and run the fastest they've ever run and finish the highest they've ever done at the MAC meet on the day, is so exciting and so promising for the future."
However, with the NCAA Regionals on the horizon (Nov. 10; Madison, Wis.), now is not the time to be forecasting too far into the future, as Swieton quickly re-grounded.
"Right now, one step at a time: we're just looking to regionals. We have some seniors so we want to send them out with a bang and have them have the most fun, and have the best possible performance on that day…"
Though fittingly for the seventh-year director of the CMU programs, one last joke:
"…just to convince them all to come back next year."
Indeed it was for redshirt-junior Emily Paupore (Negaunee, Mich. / Negaunee) as she notched Central Michigan Cross Country's first-ever women's individual Mid-American Conference title Saturday afternoon, breaking the course record at Bowling Green State University by 11 seconds in 20:30.27. Her personal best was shaved by more than 18 seconds, breaking through a career time that had stood since September 30, 2022.
"I'm usually someone who comes on halfway through the race and feels good," Paupore pointed out. "Today I actually felt really good; I felt like the pace was comfortable through about 3k."
This did not prevent the MAC Scholar Athlete from feeling a slowdown midway through the race, but Head Coach Jenny Swieton was there for her when it mattered most.
"Going up the last hill, I started to doubt myself," Paupore said. "Having Jenny, especially around 5k when I was starting to doubt myself, just tell me what a privilege it is just to be able to run and have a supportive group of girls around me who are literally my best friends… being reminded the fact that I'm here is a gift, that really helped me."
The gravity of Paupore's performance showed through as Swieton fought through tears in reflecting on the race, and she thinks Paupore is the kind of person that her foes cannot root against.
"I think it's hard to put into words what [the MAC title] means, but she just works so hard every day." Swieton said. "She's there for her team and she's there for everybody else. She puts everybody else first and she truly just does it to celebrate the gifts she's been given and get everything out of herself.
"She's super, super fun to coach and she's somebody you have to root for no matter what. I'm sure every other MAC person roots for her even though they probably don't want to because she's just an amazing person."
EMILY PAUPORE 🔥@cmutrack's FIRST MAC Women's Cross Country Individual Champion! 🥇 #MACtion pic.twitter.com/a79Bf1qbei
— #MACtion (@MACSports) October 28, 2023
The women's unit finished sixth for the fourth time since 2017. Redshirt-senior Anya Turner (Farmington, Mich. / Harrison) cracked the top-25 in 23rd (21:33.56) on a season-best effort while a trio of Chippewas finished 34th-36th: sophomore Jessie Gibbins (Loveland, Ohio) and freshman Kara Terakedis (Onsted, Mich. / Onsted) each found a new personal best at 21:49.07 and 21:50.71, respectively, while redshirt-junior Natalie Newcombe (Mecosta, Mich. / Chippewa Hills) came within four seconds of her PR from earlier this season at 21:56.55.
"[The women] went out and gave it everything they absolutely had." Swieton said. "They worked together as a team—our strength is in our pack—and I think that just watching them move through the race together, move up together, was really exciting to watch."
Emily Paupore is a MAC CHAMPION‼️
— CMU T&F/XC (@CMUtrack) October 28, 2023
She shattered her previous 6k PR and set the new course record at the Mel Brodt Cross Country Course to become the first individual MAC Women's Cross Country Champion in CMU program history!
Congratulations, Emily!#FireUpChips🔥⬆️👟 pic.twitter.com/TPNkwGaBuN
The Chippewa men had their own breakthrough day, as both sides of the program improved one place in the team standings over the 2022 event.
"The men started us off on a really good note; they outperformed their ranking they all gave everything they had. We had huge season bests and PRs out of them, and they just fought with heart for their team the whole way. I think that set the women up for a really good performance as well."
A top-25 finish for sophomore Blake Chipman (Flushing, Mich. / Flushing) came through a personal-best by more than 20 seconds (25:05.82) and a season-best of nearly 90 seconds.
"Blake ran lights out, knocked it out of the park with a huge PR. Our number six and seven were placers for us that helped our team score so it really was like a true team effort."
Redshirt-senior Gabe Goosen (Howard City, Mich. / Tri-County) was the next Chippewa at 25:31.79 in 43rd for nearly a 24-second improvement from his season-high set at Bradley two weeks ago. Within the next 20 seconds of the race, Central Michigan logged two PRs from freshman Aiden Smith (Adrian, Mich. / Adrian) [48th, 25:43.00] and sophomore Ethan Leitner (Tecumseh, Mich. / Tecumseh) [54th, 25:47.29], with the freshman posting a 67-second gain on his early-career mark.
"I think the men made a huge leap the last two meets, like maybe we're kind of staying steady and then all of a sudden, they were like 'okay let's do it' and they jumped forward which was awesome and so exciting to see."
Swieton believes Saturday's performances are elevated by a course not usually friendly to the stopwatch.
"We had a ton of PRs today and this is not a super-fast course; it's definitely not a PR course. To have so many men and women come out and run the fastest they've ever run and finish the highest they've ever done at the MAC meet on the day, is so exciting and so promising for the future."
However, with the NCAA Regionals on the horizon (Nov. 10; Madison, Wis.), now is not the time to be forecasting too far into the future, as Swieton quickly re-grounded.
"Right now, one step at a time: we're just looking to regionals. We have some seniors so we want to send them out with a bang and have them have the most fun, and have the best possible performance on that day…"
Though fittingly for the seventh-year director of the CMU programs, one last joke:
"…just to convince them all to come back next year."
Players Mentioned
/ Men's Cross Country
/ Women's Cross Country
/ Men's Cross Country
/ Men's Cross Country
/ Women's Cross Country
/ Women's Cross Country
/ Men's Cross Country
/ Women's Cross Country
/ Women's Cross Country
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