ASU freshman Samantha Ortega took first place at the Dave Murray Invitational in Tucson last Friday. It was her first-ever collegiate race.
“It was really exciting, but it was even more exciting to know that our team won and obviously our team came close to winning last weekend,” Ortega said. “But just being a part of a team and helping them win is just the best feeling; just seeing smiles all around.”
ASU men’s captain Ryan Herson said Ortega was composed during the race, which was important.
“She had a lot of poise, she looked like she had been out there before even though it was her first time racing in a Sun Devil uniform,” Herson said. “It’s pretty impressive how she went out there and she just trusted her training and took care of business.”
ASU women’s captain Shaina Corbin said Ortega brings a lot to the team.
“She’s one of our highest mileage girls already as a freshman so that just shows that her high school career was tremendous and she’s willing to put in that work to lead a team which is great as a freshman,” Corbin said.
As this was Ortega’s first collegiate race of her career, there was an adjustment to the NCAA level.
“I communicated a lot with my college coach and I just got up every morning and trained and thought about what my teammates here were going to be doing and what the training was going to be like and how hard it would be,” Ortega said. “I was just trying to mentally and physically prepare myself for that every day over the summer.”
Even with a first-place finish, Ortega took away some constructive criticism from the meet, namely the importance of keeping the ASU runners as close to the front as possible as a team.
“It was definitely work harder to keep our front pack together and our front pack of girls running as close together as possible and not just me moving up by myself but my teammates moving with me,” Ortega said.
Quintana said Ortega's future is bright as the season moves forward.
The team's mantra for the season is to "focus on the process." Quintana wants his runners to work day-to-day on continuing to get better and managing the controllable aspects of each run.
He preaches having a good attitude and constantly working to get better. Ortega has embraced that mantra early on.
“If she keeps doing that, then she’s going to have a pretty phenomenal freshman year and then, if that’s sort of a springboard to the rest of her NCAA career, that’s pretty exciting," he said.
Related Link:
ASU cross country sweeps Dave Murray Invitational in Tucson
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