Jill Scully and Rose Lehe posed for the cameras after the Great Lakes Regional on Nov. 13, showing off their legs. After they had finished running for 20 minutes, someone pointed out that they had matching cuts on their legs, and Scully insisted on getting a photo of it.
Scully finished 10th in that race to advance to that NCAA Championships today at Indiana State University.
Scully will be at nationals for the second time in her career, although this time she will be in the spotlight for Ball State, as only she was able to advance.
"I'll definitely be running for all of them," Scully said after the meet.
According to those who know Scully best, that mentality is just an extension of her personality.
"She puts others before herself," Chantelle Huguenard, Scully's best friend, said. "She is a really good person to talk to."
"She likes to take pictures. She doesn't put them in albums like most people do -- well, she does that too -- but she also puts them together in a collage for other people, that makes you feel really good about yourself."
"She's always giving herself away," Stephen Scully, Jill's father, said.
The team (which Jill calls "a bunch of crazy girls who love to run") will also be out there to support Scully.
"I think almost all of them have been able to get out of their classes to come," Scully said. "I tell them that I'm going to talk to some of there professors personally because it's really important to me. I think all are going to be able to."
"They have a secret outfit or attire they're wearing and they won't tell me about it, so I'm really excited."
While her fourth year on the Ball State cross country team has been the most successful, it was certainly not unexpected. She had won early in the year at Butler, and had constantly finished well throughout the year.
While Scully still has two seasons of eligibility for indoor and outdoor track, this weekend will mark the end of her cross country career at Ball State.
Scully's decision to come to Ball State was more about atmosphere than it was performance.
"I had no idea where I wanted to go, what I wanted to do, I just knew I wanted to run somewhere," she said. "I came here for a visit, and the team was just really fun and really welcomed me. I felt like I was with my team back home. Coach (Sue) Parks was really welcoming, and she ran a program similar to the one at my home."
At the same time, Jill decided that she wanted to get into education, and Ball State became the perfect fit.
"It was the perfect size school for her," Stephen Scully said. "The size of the school, the size of the classes."
After a successful freshman year in cross country, where she earned second-team All-Mid-American Conference, Jill had surgery on her knee due to an injury that began in high school, and sat out the track season.
She came back her sophomore year, and struggled.
"I had to work really hard, and I was putting in the same amount of time if not more without getting the same results," Scully said. "Coach had to take me aside and tell me it takes time to come back from surgery."
As she began this year, Parks told Scully that she could have a successful season.
"I was more in shape than other before," Scully said. "Coach had talked about winning MAC and making nationals in the beginning, and I just kind of let those go in one ear and out the other."
While she did not win the MAC (she finished second), she advanced to the championships with her run at the Great Lakes Regional, one of the top regions in the country.
"I mean, the ND girls, the U of M -- these are really good teams and those are really good girls," she said. "Normally I don't even consider myself to be up there, but on that day, coach just put it in my head that I've trained, I've put in so much work over the whole half semester.
"It's there. I can keep up with them and I can push the pace if I'm right up there, so I had that in my head that day. I kind of amazed myself."
MARG:
Jill on goals: "Last year was my first really good year in track. I want to go after that, be up there with the top runners. I'd like to make it to nationals."
Jill on Leadership: "I lead by example, not like, for example or by telling people things, I just wanted to be a role model by example."
On the team: "They're kind of like my family here. I live with half of them, so that's part of it too."
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