Hard to believe the college running experience for the 2018 T. Franklin Boyd Tiger of the Year is almost over. Four years of postsecondary schooling seemed to fly by in a blink as the former Mansfield long distance runner wrapped up her final Great American Conference Race.
Megan Rose, the highly regarded former MHS athlete, laced up the running shoes for her final GAC conference meet on Saturday, October 23. True to form and living for the moment, the college senior pulled off her career best 5K time to end her conference race schedule.
Rose went 19:36.8 to place as Southeastern Oklahoma State’s fastest runner on the day at the GAC conference finals in Searcy, Arkansas. The mark was only 33rd in the overall standings but a terrific way for the former Tiger to end her 5K career.
“I just wanted to let you know I ran my last college 5K race today,” said an emotional Rose in a phone conversation with her high school coach John Mackey. “It’s over. I feel pretty happy with the way it all went down. I have a 6K run at Regionals in a couple of weeks then I’m officially done.”
Rose could have redeemed a “super senior” season and run next year, but she admitted she was ready to hang up her running shoes. The four year college participant will trade in her competition shoes for a coach’s whistle. Her plans are to remain at Southeastern one more year as a graduate assistant and earn her master’s degree in education.
“Megan had a crack in her voice,” said her high school coach John Mackey. “I could tell it was an emotional day for her when she called to express her best college day. I just said how proud I was of her and how her name comes up all the time when talking about determination to our current Mansfield team.”
To further accentuate the terrific day, Rose announced she was the only Savage Storm runner to be awarded the prestigious Distinguished Scholar Award. For the second consecutive season, Rose walked away with the coveted prize honoring those players that have achieved 70 credit hours and a 3.75 GPA.
