Cross country season has come to an end, and redshirt sophomore Kira MacGill has further etched her name into the Colorado Mesa University (CMU) record books.
With her fourteenth place finish at the NCAA D2 region championship, MacGill was able to qualify for the NCAA D2 national championship. In the championship race, she placed 29 out of 263 runners and became the second All-American in CMU cross country history by doing so.
“Running isn’t an immediate gratification sport at all,” MacGill said. “It can be really hard when everything you see is right in front of your nose, and you don’t see the progress that you’re making, and sometimes I feel stuck. Just to finally hear my name, hold the medal, be on the podium, it means everything we’re doing is working, and everything that I do does matter.”
In addition to being named an All-American, MacGill put together a season filled with even more accolades. She led the Maverick team in all five of her meets, and along the line was named all region for the second year in a row, and all conference second team for the third year in a row.
On Sept. 17, MacGill placed first at the Mountaineer/Cowboy Invite, and became the first Maverick woman to win a race since 2014. In the race she ran a 6K pace of 21.22.4, which was her personal best until she broke it at nationals running a 21.13.
Winning is something MacGill has been accustomed to. In her senior year at Arapahoe High School, her cross country team won the 5A state championship. Even though MacGill was a state champion, she was not recruited heavily.
“My role on the team was definitely the glue. For running, the best thing you can do is to condense your pack time from your first to fifth runner, so my role was to fill that gap. So, when contacting coaches I didn’t really stand out PR wise,” MacGill said.
Due to being a 2020 graduate, MacGill didn’t have a chance to run track because of COVID-19. In response, she contacted Milesplit, a database that posts times for colleges to see.
“It really helped a lot, so shoutout to Milesplit. Then, through one of my high school teammates, Lindsey [Parsons], I was able to contact CMU. I liked the engineering program here, I thought the team would fit me well, so all the pieces fit for me, and it ended up being a great pick,” MacGill said.
MacGill has been a dominant runner for the Mavericks since day one. In her freshman season, she led the team in the first four races of her career, and was named Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference freshman of the year.
When crediting her supporters, MacGill stated her parents have been there for her every step of her journey.
“I have a phenomenal support system,” MacGill said. “My mom is probably the one who encouraged me to start to run. It’s because I would steal her race shirts that she got from fun runs, and she would say, ‘no, you have to earn those.’ So then I finally said ‘fine, I’ll do it’, and a little runner was born.”
For MacGill, it’s right back to work. She and the rest of the CMU cross country team quickly prepare to compete in the track season, which has just begun. The track team’s next meet is the Mountaineer Open in Gunnison on Jan. 9, 2023.
