Time On West Deptford Grad's Mind

Time can be sliced many different ways.

For athletes who take on the challenge of competitive running, time is often broken down into tiny fractions. Seconds and tenths of seconds, rather than minutes or hours, are what make the difference between winning and losing, making the cut or missing it. 

Meghan McGlinchey, who graduated from West Deptford High School in 2009, knows all about shaving off precious seconds to her competitive times. As a member of the LaSalle University cross county and track teams, she has made great strides in her two seasons at the Pennsylvania school.

However, now more than ever, the notion of time–or lack thereof–is fresh on her mind.

“The older you get the more pressure there is to do well,” said McGlinchey, who is preparing for her junior year. “When it’s your freshman year, it is a shock when you realize there are so many runners who are same as you, and you are not a standout any more. But the older you get, the pressure builds, because your time is running out.”

McGlinchey figures to be one of the key runners for the LaSalle cross country team this fall. She is coming off of a highly successful spring track season that saw her excel in long-distance events.

One of her top results came in Princeton where she posted the second-best time for a LaSalle runner ever at the meet. She completed the 5,000-meter run in the Larry Ellis Night Races at Princeton in a remarkable time of 16:27.76.

“I wasn’t expecting to run that fast, I was just looking to run fast to qualify for regions,” she said. “College is a lot harder to qualify, you have to be top 48 in region, and I ended up running pretty fast and won by 20 seconds. Through the year I had a lot of steps back, and that was a big step forward for me.”

McGlinchey was competing in her first collegiate track season after red-shirting as a freshman, but is entering her third year of cross country. She said that one of her favorite moments of year college career came last spring, when she got a chance to compete in the Penn Relays as part of a relay team. She had been to the event over her years on the West Deptford track team, but only as a spectator.

“I always wanted to (run it in high school) but never did,” she said. “There’s so many teams from all over, so you get to run against people you don’t usually see. It was a lot of fun."

McGlinchey also got to go across the country in March. She won her 5,000-meter heat at the Stanford Invitational, crossing the line in 16:42.03.

Since the end of her sophomore, the West Deptford native has been putting in tons of miles on the pavement, trying to cut down every second she can. She said her goal for the fall is to help her team reach nationals.

“Cross country is a team sport, and I really want to help the team get to nationals,” McGlinchey said. “Now is the time to do it.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: If you would like to see an update of a West Deptford graduate who is competing athletically at the collegiate level, you can reach out to Sports Editor Eric Schwartz here.