Dylon Harrison

Staff Writer

For some athletes, a major surgery can be career-ending. Rachel McGovern, captain of ISU’s women’s cross country team, could have been one of those athletes, but she refused to give up without a fight.

Before coming to ISU, McGovern had a surgery that removed part of her pelvis and reattached her hamstring. Despite this, McGovern said she still raced on a torn hamstring during her freshman year.

“Freshman year I had really slow times,” McGovern said.

Now in her junior year, McGovern continues to train and cut minutes off her times.

McGovern grew up in Pocatello and competed in cross country and track for Pocatello High School all four years and went to the state meet every season where she won a few state titles.

She continues to compete in both cross country and track at ISU. Her main event for track is the 5-K, but she also occasionally competes in other long-distance events.

Growing up, ISU athletics, specifically cross country and track, were a big part of McGovern’s life. Her mother was the athletic trainer and her father ran for ISU when he was in college. Her high school coach also used to run for ISU.

“It’s kind of just always been part of what we’ve done,” McGovern said. “When I was little, I always wanted to play sports for ISU.”

McGovern continues to push herself to perform better and better each season while trying to reach new personal bests.

Every course that we race consistently every year, obviously you want to get a [personal record],” McGovern said. “When conference comes around, you always have goals. You want to score higher than you did last year.”

McGovern said most of her current goals focus on the team as a whole. With a young team this season, ISU is working towards competing consistently.

“We have a lot of talent on the team,” McGovern said. “So, our goal right now, looking at conference, would be top-five at conference.”

McGovern said that reaching the top-five is being “careful,” and that the team would obviously like to do better if they can.

“Cross country is a very competitive sport in the Big Sky right now,” McGovern said.

So far this season, the cross country team has competed in three races. The most recent of these was in Montana. ISU’s team finished within a couple points of Montana, a higher ranking team than them.

“We’re definitely growing a lot as far as talent,” McGovern said.  “From when I came to now, is two completely different teams.”

The cross country team also took a win at this season’s home meet. McGovern said she personally had a “pretty good” race during the home meet.

Their next race is this week at Southern Utah, the final race of the regular season.

“It’s kind of a smaller meet,” McGovern said. “Then after that we’ll be getting into championships.”