Cross Country | 10/28/2021 3:51:00 PM

 

 
Yazmine Wright visited Wichita State teammate Danielle Rinn in Boulder, Colo., last summer. They talked about cross country on their runs. They talked about their workouts and Wright's excitement for her senior season.
 
Those runs gave Rinn a preview of what was to come from Wright, one of the favorites in Friday's American Athletic Conference Championship in Lakeland, Fla.
 
"She seemed really stoked about the season," Rinn said. "It seemed different. She had that extra edge."
 
Wright is running with an edge this fall. She won the three meets she finished and sent up a flare when she defeated Missouri senior Sarah Chapman, who finished third in the 2020 SEC meet, on her home course in early October.
 
"I can definitely understand why (Rinn) saw a difference in me," Wright said. "That main thing she saw was extreme motivation. Ever since my outdoor season ended, literally the moment it ended, I was already thinking about what I could do for cross country. Every single day, training by myself, I was thinking about the goals I had for cross country."
 
Wright, from Hutchinson, isn't all edge, however.
 
She is a biology major who recently worked on a project building an ecological database of insects on campus. She also spent part of her summer building a small indoor greenhouse. It houses her favorite, the swiss cheese plant, and her collection of around 20 plants.
 
"It's relaxing," she said. "You start out with a really small plant, and you tend to it over a few weeks and you really see it grow and it's awesome."
 
More of her spare time goes to Auggie, her two-year-old Saint Bernard.
 
"He is incredibly goofy, very, very lazy and he loves to cuddle and sleep all day," Wright said. "I've always loved big dogs."
 
Those hobbies didn't distract from her priority. She ran the track at Cessna Stadium and the dirt roads around Wichita over the summer to prepare to challenge for the conference title and NCAA Championship meet.
 
Her story is already unusual – she came to Wichita State as a 400-meter sprinter and considered cross country a tool to stay in shape. That sport grew on her and now she has a chance to join the long line of recent conference champion Shockers that includes Desiraye Osburn, Kellyn Johnson, Tonya Nero, Olympic marathoner Aliphine Tuliamuk, Rebekah Topham and Winny Koskei.
 
That takes an edge. Her workouts did their part and led her to a place of attitude and confidence. She finished fifth in last season's conference meet. In the spring, she finished fourth in the 800 meters and fifth in the 1,500 at the conference meet.
 
Cross country coach Kirk Hunter sees a runner who is no longer satisfied with those type of results. Wright's race against Chapman gave him the proof Wright thinks of herself as more than someone who can run near the front.
 
"There's a difference between being a strong competitor and turning into someone who now decides that they're going to be a person who wins races," Hunter said. "She would be in the mix, she would do things, she would get beat. Last year, in track, she started to get the feeling and the knowledge that she could win races and she could run people down."
 
Wright most recently won the Bradley Pink Classic with a personal-best time of 20 minutes, 35.50 seconds in the six kilometers. The motivation that fueled her summer comes from the knowledge her cross country career is nearing its end.
 
"That's a kick in the butt to get things going," she said. "Over the past year, my love for running has really grown and I want to be as good as I possibly can for as long as I possibly can."

Tulsa is the favorite in the women's 6-kilometer race and the men's 8-kilometer race. The Tulsa women won the past two titles and are ranked No. 7 in the Midwest Region. The Tulsa men, who have won seven titles in a row, is ranked No. 9 nationally. Wichita State's men are fifth in the Midwest Region and won two meets this fall.

The men's race begins at 7 a.m. at Holloway Park, with the women's 6k to follow 7:50 a.m.

Paul Suellentrop covers Wichita State Athletics and the American Athletic Conference for university Strategic Communications. Story suggestion? Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.