Athlete-Coach Hybrid: Sarah Inglis and Trinity Western Cross Country

There is a saying that goes: “those who cannot do, teach”. It just so happens however that those that can do, often make some of the best teachers. This is without a doubt the case for professional distance athlete and Trinity Western University track and field Coach Sarah Inglis. Having started her running career at the age of nine, she’s been competing in local, high school, collegiate and professional races ever since. Holding personal bests of 14:59 and 8:46 in the 5000 and 3000 meters respectively, her talent, experience and knowledge translates perfectly to collegiate coaching.

“I’ve been through all stages of competing in high school and then competing in university and then transitioning from each of those stages or kind of tough to transition from an in college to professional as well,” said Coach Inglis. “It’s prepared me as a coach because I've been through all those stages and can relate to similar experiences that my athletes are going through.”

The team put in a whole summer of preparation for this 2024 XC season which included some standout individual performances. Many miles were logged prior to the season's start with a solid base of training laid as a foundation. This coming with an extra layer of in-season training has led to some strong team performances.

“We have a lot of base training for the athletes [over the summer]. A lot of easy running, some hills, a few tempos, maybe even one workout a week. Just general prep in the summer getting them ready for the fall,” said Coach Inglis. “I think for the cross country season, I went through like 10 years of my training diaries prepping for the fall. Some of the key workouts are tempos, like threshold stuff during the week and at volume it's up to like 40 minutes. Most of them are doing between 20 to 40 minutes of tempo work in a workout, also including a medium long run in the week and some kind of hill workout.”

Over the course of this season, Trinity Western has notched two individual wins on the women's side, both coming from second year Constance Nankivell. On the men's side, the trio of Yemane Mulugeta, David Mutai and Justin Kiplagat have produced a slew of top ten individual performances, which made the team a serious threat at the Canada West Championship. This combined with a series of young athletes has made the potential of this young team nearly boundless.

“Our team’s pretty young, so we’ve had quite a few high school athletes transition over. I’ll be interested to see next summer, they’ll be more prepared because they’ll be coming through the program for a year and then building into the fall year,” said Coach Inglis. “We have a lot of young guys on the team, and it's a very new team… We've sprinkled in some of the new guys and then a couple of seasoned athletes in terms of building a really positive support of culture. in the team, and I think we really had that momentum going, especially on our guys' side this year. We just performed really well [at CanWest Championships] and I think building that momentum and that positive energy was really good.”

In terms of team culture, the team’s roster is fairly small which leads to a tight knit squad. With a fun and positive team culture, the bonds formed at Trinity Western exist outside of practice as well as during.

“We have a few team captains who take on leadership roles, and they’re organizing team dinners, team events and so on,” said Coach Inglis. “A lot of the athletes also socialize and bond outside of practice hours and our team captains take the lead on that.”

Being on a smaller team also means that the personality of recruits matters and not just raw speed. Having athletes that mesh well with a hard working, cohesive team culture is important for Coach Inglis and the rest of the coaching staff.

“Athletes who are good people, who are going to be good teammates, leaders and work well with others on the team are very important,” said Coach Inglis. “Then on the individual side, determination, positive attitude…someone who’s going to contribute to the team in a good way overall is what we’re looking for. I know it’s an individual sport, but it’s also very team-oriented, so we’re looking for somebody who’s going to be part of the team and who’s going to help build the culture as well.”

The team finished their season at the USPORTS National Championships on November 9th with 2 top-4 individual performances from 2024 Canada West Champion Constance Nankivell (2nd) and Yemane Mulugeta (4th), as well as a men’s 11th place team result. The program now turns their attention to their final USPORTS indoor season (as they are moving to the NAIA come fall 2025) beginning in the new year.

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