Dalton State’s Sabeeh to run at national championship

Published 7:00 pm Wednesday, November 15, 2017

After graduating from Heritage High School in Ringgold, Noor Sabeeh said running collegiately wasn’t really in her plans. That was until she received an offer to run for the Dalton State College women’s cross country team.

She jumped at the chance to run close to home, but that’s given her the chance to run nearly as far from home as possible.

Sabeeh is on her way to Vancouver, Wash., where she willl represent her school at the NAIA national cross country championships.

Sabeeh will run on Saturday at the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site. Her 5K national championship race is scheduled to start at 11:30 a.m. Pacific Standard Time.

“I’m really excited to be able to make it to nationals. I’ve been training hard and trying to somewhat get better,” Sabeeh said before a recent training run at Grove Level North Park. “I wasn’t really expecting it at first. I thought we’d make it as a team, now that I’m getting to go as a freshman, it’s really exciting.”

Sabeeh qualified out of the Southern States Athletic Conference championship meet when she finished seventh overall in 20 minutes, 5.58 seconds.

The conference championship team and the top four individuals not on the championship team earned national qualifying spots. Sabeeh said she was confident in her spot when she crossed the finish line, only to learn her fate came down to math.

“I knew while I was running I had to beat this one girl that was in front of me to be able to qualify to go to nationals,” Sabeeh said. “I basically killed myself to get past her. When I got past her I was happy, I was thinking I made it to nationals. Then coach, when I crossed the finish said I’d only make it to nationals if Blue Mountain makes it (as a team), and if they don’t and the other team makes it then I don’t because I’d be top 5 instead of top 4.”

It took about 10 minutes Sabeeh estimated before it was revealed she made it it as the fourth and final individual qualifier.

“I was jumping up and down with excitement,” she said. “Everyone was hugging me and congratulating me. I called my mom and my mom bought her (plane) ticket right when I called her.”

Sabeeh said running for the Roadrunners this year has shown her a new level of committment she didn’t quite have while running in high school.

“In high school I don’t think I had as much determination as I did starting off as a freshman,” she said. “I used to not take practice as seriously and everything. I feel like when I came here this year, I put in the work and came to practice and I tried hard to be where I am today.”

She says she’s not sure what to expect from the national championship run, but has goals in mind when it comes to her performance.

“I honestly don’t know how the course is set up or how cold it’s going to be or anything about that day,” she said. “I’m hoping if it’s a good day and I’m feeling good I’m hoping to break my time. I want to break 20:05. I want to be in the 19s and if that doesn’t happen, I hope to at least achieve close to what I got at conference.”

Prior her final training session before leaving for Washington, Sabeeh was greeted by her entire team as they wished her luck. Sabeeh said it won’t be the same without them running with her, but is looking to still put forth her best effort.

“It’s going to feel weird because I love having teammates on the same line as me racing with me,” she said. “But I just got to go out there and still race like I usually do.”