Wichita State junior Yazmine Wright fell in love with cross country, which isn't always easy to do – especially for a sprinter. There is heat and cold, mixed with dust and mud, topped by long, long runs. Sometimes, exhaustion, collapse and vomit await at the finish line.
"The only reason I did cross country in high school was to help improve my 400 time," she said. "It wasn't anything I was super-good at, so I had zero intentions of doing it in college."
Things changed, in part because coaches talked her into it, in part because she loved her teammates and because she turned out to be quite good at longer distances.