Sky's the Limit
October 12, 2008 11:44 PM | General
October 13, 2008
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - The West Virginia University women’s cross country team is making national headway in the running world with its No. 7 ranking in the most recent national poll. WVU’s three-time track and field/cross-country All-American, Marie-Louise Asselin, is a major reason why.
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| Sophomore Marie-Louise Asselin has the Mountaineers ranked seventh in the country this week.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo |
Known as one of the top distance runners in the country, Asselin is one of the program’s shining stars. Since coming to WVU in 2006, she has achieved two cross country All-American citations, and has achieved a slew of other honors that gives her the chance to become one of the top athletes to ever don a WVU uniform.
In her most recent race at the Paul Short Invitational in Bethlehem, Pa., she not only broke a meet record against some of the nation’s best competition -- which included five teams ranked in the Top 30 – she also won the race by 21 seconds. Her monumental performance helped the Mountaineers win the event for the first time in the program’s history.
She also broke the course record by 12 seconds, passing the standard that Georgetown’s Melissa Grelli previously set.
“The timer was right by the finish line so I got to see what I was running at,” Asselin said of her 19:38 finish. “I kind of knew when I was running that it was going to be fast because I was by myself. The girls are good runners, but the fact that I was running by myself made me think that I was going at a good pace.”
Asselin has been at a blistering pace ever since she arrived in Morgantown. She was named to the all-Mid-Atlantic Regional team and finished first at the Mid-Atlantic Regionals in her freshman campaign. She placed 14th individually at the NCAA Championships her sophomore season, and emerged victorious at the competitive Penn State National Open amongst 278 competitors by finishing first with a time of 20:46.
Her ability to seemingly run forever has carried over to representing her country as well. The Sarnia, Ontario, native has raced for the Canadian National Cross Country team, placing second at the North American cross country championships in 2006 and winning a gold medal in the 5k at the Junior Pan American Games in 2007.
“It’s awesome to have that Canadian uniform and representing your country. It’s been amazing representing a school or a team, but I’m representing my own country. It’s a good feeling,” Asselin admitted.
She follows a similar path as the school’s best-ever distance runner in Megan Metcalfe, who raced in the 5,000 meter run in the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing. Asselin has the same goal in mind as Metcalfe, but chooses to remain focused on what she and her WVU teammates can accomplish for the rest of the season.
“It’s something that I definitely have a goal for, but I don’t want to think about it too much because it is far away,” Asselin stated. “But eventually yes, that would be great (to compete in the 2012 Summers Games in London).”
Asselin is one of six Canadians on WVU’s roster. Led by Coach Sean Cleary, who has an excellent recruiting base north of the border, she never looks back on coming from the flat plains of Sarnia to the rugged mountains of Morgantown.
“One of my coaches in high school ran against Coach Cleary,” Asselin said of her Canadian-born coach. “I didn’t really know him that much but I knew he had coached Megan Metcalfe – who is a really good runner. If he can do that with her, then he’s a good coach and he can help me become a really good runner.
“I knew he was good, but I didn’t know what I was getting myself into until I actually came here and saw how dedicated he was and how much he wanted to help. I’m glad I chose to come here.”
The cross-country program is thankful to have Asselin as well. She is a relentless, dedicated athlete who can run like the wind and spark up a laugh with many of her teammates and coaches.
Asselin possesses great linguistic skills as well, speaking predominantly French-Canadian when she is home. She learned the English language when she was in eighth grade, yet sounds like she has been speaking it since she was born.
Her knack for picking up on the world’s fourth-most spoken language transferred to her capability of finding her true passion in life: running. Ever since she was younger, she seemed destined to one day be a top-notch collegiate runner.
“I started running kind of seriously in high school. A lot of the girls from the same city as me were going to the States to compete,” Asselin said. “I saw it as an opportunity to race and get a good education. I feel like I’m really lucky to be here running for the school, and they’ve taken good care of me. I’m really blessed.
“I’ve always been running since I was younger and my mom told me I would be a runner when I get older. I was always running everywhere.”
The only thing she is running toward now is the finish line, and many times she does it far ahead of her competitors. With the success she has enjoyed racing for both WVU and Canada, she acknowledges that she has never shied away from running against some of best competition in both areas.
“There’s more competition here, and there’s a lot of good runners here,” Asselin said of her opponents in Morgantown. “There are good runners in Canada, but not as many as here. “
Regardless of how many times she races at her peak, Asselin is tremendously exuberant about how the Old Gold and Blue will fare as a team. With a squad that returns all of its letterwinners from a season ago – the same team that won the school’s first-ever BIG EAST Championship and finished second at the Mid-Atlantic Regionals – the talented, down-to-earth distance runner feels that the sky is the limit for the seventh-ranked Mountaineers.
“We’re really excited,” Asselin said of the team’s high national ranking. “We knew that we had a good team, but being (ranked) seventh proves that everyone else thinks that too. We’re ready to compete and be a really good team and I think it’s going to continue to be a good year.”
