Lakeview's Maggie Farrell off to fast start for Michigan State cross country
Lakeview High School graduate and 2016 'Miss Cross Country' Award winner posts third-place finish in first collegiate race for Spartans
Maggie Farrell was anything but a pack runner as a senior at Lakeview High School.
The 2015 Division 1 cross country and 2016 3,200-meter state champion often left the competition in her dust in a year that saw her named Miss Cross Country for the state of Michigan as well as an All-American in the two-mile.
Yet in her first collegiate cross country race for 17th-ranked Michigan State, Farrell was more than happy to have some company as she helped the Spartans run away with the Division I title at the MSU Spartan Invitational on Friday.
Farrell placed third overall out of 291 runners and was the second Spartan to cross the finish line with a 6K time of 21 minutes, 27.2 seconds.
"It was a great experience and doing well was a cherry on top because the whole time I had people I was running with. so I had someone to talk with most of the time," Farrell said. "(Michigan State senior Erin McDonald) kept on telling me she won't let me go, she has my back. It was a new experience, but it was something that was so cool, to have someone who had my back and it wasn't about beating me, but supporting me."
Farrell also had the support of some of her former Lakeview teammates, as the Spartans were in East Lansing that day to compete in the MSU Spartan Invitational.
"First, it was a home meet, so we already had a lot of great support," Farrell said. "But also to have all the people who I had been training with up until this point there to cheer me on was really neat and special."
Nick Buckley can be reached at nbuckley@battlecreekenquirer.com or 269-966-0652. Follow him on Twitter:@NickJBuckley