{"id":11018,"date":"2019-11-18T19:55:41","date_gmt":"2019-11-19T01:55:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/?p=11018"},"modified":"2019-11-18T19:55:43","modified_gmt":"2019-11-19T01:55:43","slug":"mckibbens-journey-from-sprinter-to-cross-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/archives\/11018","title":{"rendered":"McKibben’s journey from sprinter to cross country"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Kiki Bennett–<\/strong>Sophomore Jojo McKibben went from being at the top of the conference in the 100-meter dash to qualifying for cross country nationals in the span of six months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McKibben joined cross country this fall after a freshman year full of jump and sprint events in track. \u201cAs a sprinter, I was pretty mediocre I couldn\u2019t compete against the conference girls, and I wanted to see where this path would take [me],\u201d said McKibben.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No one knew that this change in direction would result in her going to nationals with her childhood best friend, senior Emalee Funderman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Sophomore Jojo McKibben (Left) and Senior Emalee Funderman<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

With all of her success as a distance runner, McKibben has remained one of the humblest runners out there. \u201cI have great teammates who pushed me to be where I am today, and I wouldn\u2019t be where I am today without them,\u201d said McKibben. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

McKibben stresses the amount that the team has pushed her to be her best. \u201cI\u2019m really grateful for the distance side for having open arms, for excepting me and for pushing me to the extremes,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a 5k best of 19:10, McKibben hopes to be in the top 100 at the NAIA National Championship in Vancouver, Washington. McKibben hopes to be neck and neck with childhood best friend, Emalee Funderman, who has a 5k best of 19:15 at Nationals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for her track career, McKibben expressed that she is not quite sure what she will be doing for the indoor season. \u201cI really don\u2019t think I\u2019ll ever see a 60 in my future. Whatever coach tells me to run, I\u2019ll do,\u201d stated McKibben. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Kiki Bennett–Sophomore Jojo McKibben went from being at the top of the conference in the 100-meter dash to qualifying for cross country nationals in the span of six months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":11020,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56109,170],"tags":[174,6119,53984,46732,46788,56112],"class_list":["post-11018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-morningside-people","category-sports","tag-cross-country","tag-morningside-college","tag-mustang-athletics","tag-mustangs","tag-student-athletes","tag-track"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11018"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11021,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11018\/revisions\/11021"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}