What helped the Spartans bring home the national title — the first won by a women’s team at MSU — wasn’t the running of individuals on the team, but running as a team for each other. Head coach Walt Drenth and assistant coach Lisa Senakiweich emphasized “pack running” all season, where teammates ran together to motivate one another.

“I think when you have a good team, you have people with better abilities, so you see the pack running,” Drenth said. “I think they really took their obligation to each other seriously, by that I mean, if someone was struggling, they did their best to get with and run with a teammate. When they were running by somebody, they did their best to pull them along.”

Throughout the season, redshirt senior Leah O’Connor and redshirt sophomore Rachele Schulist ran together and pushed each other to become the best runners they could be. These two were friends, roommates and had comparable talent so they were able to have this type of bond, Drenth said.

“Our success has come from our pack running. I think in my head that I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t have the girl next to me running — we are what keep each other going,” Clark said. “Without having the other person there that has the same goal and same mindset as you, you wouldn’t be able to accomplish the things you do. That’s how (cross country) is a team sport.”

Finishing strong

The women’s cross country team won the Division I NCAA championship Nov. 22, finishing with 85 points, above second place Iowa State by 62 points.

“I’m in awe. It has less to do with the fact that they won. It has more to do with how they conduct themselves,” Drenth said. “To me, when I see them, I see a phenomenal group of students, athletes and leaders. From my standpoint, I was just impressed with how they were and how they behaved and supported each other. My sense of pride in them couldn’t be higher.”

Schulist led the Spartans, finishing in fourth place (19:54.3), followed by redshirt junior Lindsay Clark in 11th (20:26.0), O’Connor in 17th (20:20.8) and redshirt senior Julia Otwell in 21st (20:29.5).

The LaVern Gibson Championship Course in Terre Haute, Indiana, near Indiana State University, was a fairly smooth course, except for some uneven, hilly terrain near the 4K mark, the runners explained. The light drizzling rain fueled the Spartans to run hard for the last time this historic season.

“I love nationals. I love the pressure of big meets. It’s fun and it’s what I look forward to and what the team looks forward to all year,” O’Connor said. “It’s when things really start to matter and it tests you as a competitor.”

This year marks the women’s 14th consecutive appearance at nationals of 16 total, with their highest finishing score since placing fourth in 1981. Of about 250 athletes competing at nationals, MSU had four among the top 21 and six of the top 70.

“It was an amazing performance led by (Schulist),” Drenth said. “I’m really humbled to represent these women on their quest to winning the national championships. I don’t think I’ve ever been more proud of a group of people.”

During a press conference following nationals, Drenth talked about the bus ride back to East Lansing, saying the women were loud and full of energy as they celebrated their victory on the five-hour ride.

“It’s exciting for our team to know that all of our hard work has paid off and that we can do it,” Schulist said in an earlier interview.

Road to Nationals

The Spartans started the season back in August ranked No. 6, in to the USTFCCCA NCAA Division I National Coaches Poll, and climbed to No. 1 by mid-October. Since then, they have gone undefeated, winning against the top teams in the country during regular and championship seasons including the Big Ten championships and the Great Lakes Regional Championships before their ultimate national title.

“We all got this momentum going and it never really stopped … it’s what fueled the fire for nationals,” Clark said. “We were ready to run fast and it all came together on the right day.”

When MSU was ranked No. 2, their Big Ten opponent, Michigan, was No. 1. Drenth said the rankings early on proved that the women would have a difficult and competitive end of the season, where they would run against U-M during the Big Ten and regional championships.

MSU traveled to Oregon for the first competitive meet of the season where they started their success, finishing with 20 points — their lowest team score of the season. Following the Spartan Invitational, which O’Connor won for the second consecutive year, was the Spartans’ first victory against Minnesota on September 27, finishing with 66 points.

When they headed into the Big Ten championships, U-M looked to be their biggest competitor, but it turned into a race against Wisconsin’s Sarah Disanza when two U-M were unable to compete due to injuries. There, O’Connor finished first with a career-best and course-record 6K time of 19:26.30. This year’s conference title was the second consecutive victory of four total coached by Drenth of the five in program history. Their finishing score of 26 points was the third lowest score received by the women’s cross country team.

Following the conference meet, Drenth sat down with basketball head coach Tom Izzo to get insight on how to move forward into the rest of championship season.

“He reinforced a lot of things in terms of trying to keep things calm and make sure you have fun with it because it doesn’t happen very often,” Drenth said. “There was a lot of great perspective that I really valued.”

In Madison, Wisconsin, the women finished the Great Lakes Regional Championships scoring two points higher than their Big Ten scores with 28 points. O’Connor and Schulist crossed the finish line together at 19:45, beating third place Disanza of Wisconsin by 13 seconds. This gave MSU an automatic bid to nationals.

“We’ve done a really good job all year of doing what we’re supposed to do and managing the variables we have control over — there aren’t many, frankly,” Drenth said. “We have trained well, we rested and we were ready to run.”

Undefeated Spartans

In addition to their running technique, the women build trust and friendships with one another, which coaches and athletes feel made them a stronger team overall.

“The group mentality helped us all year. I think there were virtually no individual agendas throughout the semester and when that happens, everyone’s strength and confidence in each other grows. It’s pretty empowering,” Drenth said. “There was a real sense of responsibility to each other and I think that that’s inherent with teams that do well, regardless of the sport.”

After placing sixth at nationals last year and adding new talent, Drenth felt that they had the possibility to become national champions, because these girls were “leaders and runners.” Once the season began, they started talking in general terms about their potential.

“In the beginning of the season, we weren’t really expecting anything — we went in like any other season. Each race we realized we were doing pretty well. As a whole, we kept getting better … each race we were improving,” Clark said. “To go nationals and see it all play out on that day, it was pretty special. It was a vision we saw come to life.”