Max McNeill, finance/economics senior, is more than just a college athlete.
McNeill was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. He moved to the United States in 2016.
“I started running when I was 16,” McNeill said. “I used to play soccer before that.”
McNeill said he came to OCU because of their competitive track & field and cross-country teams.
“I had a few different offers, but they had a really good team at the time. They had won a few national championships. They had a good record,” he said.
Since then, McNeill has joined both the track & field team and the cross-country team. In 2017, he was nominated for the Jim Wade Award for men’s cross country/track & field. He also has been awarded the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association individual honor and all-academic award, according to OCUsports.com.
McNeill said his team has been successful.
“As a team, we won nationals for cross country twice,” he said. “I’ve been able to get eight all-American awards as well.”
In addition to running on campus, McNeill also participated in the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon, an annual run planned in honor of the Oklahoma City Bombing in 1995. McNeill won the half-marathon in both 2017 and 2018.
McNeill said he didn’t do any additional training to prepare for the race.
“I didn’t really focus on it a lot because I was just doing what the team was doing,” he said. “We were focusing on the races that we had coming up, but the training I was getting was good enough that I was able to win it.”
McNeill has run a 6K in 19:25.4, an indoor mile in 4:22.40 and an outdoor 1500m run in 3:58.47.
McNeill said he thanks Matt Aguero, track & field head coach, for all of his support.
McNeill said he plans to stay in America after graduating from school in May.
“I want to try to get a good job,” he said. “In terms of running, we have indoor nationals in a few weeks, but after this year, I want to stay in America.”
McNeill said running is an easily accessible sport.
“The thing with running is that you don’t have to be that talented,” he said. “I was never that talented, I just started training hard, and I looked up to other runners and wanted to be as good as them, so I just trained as hard as them and made it.”
Tyler Wade, business administration senior on the track & field and cross country teams, said McNeill is someone who expects the best from his teammates.
“If there is one thing I could say about Max is that his aggressive approach to running and his attitude towards working hard was a big piece behind these past two national championships for cross country,” Wade said. “From running 80+ miles a week to running himself to the ground in every workout, he’s a hard-headed, competitive guy who just wants to win.”
Trey Cole, music education junior on the track & field team, said McNeill is a hard worker.
“Max has definitely earned everything he has gotten so far,” Cole said. “With as much extra work that I feel I may have put in, it’s a rare occasion to not see Max on the treadmills as well, getting extra mileage in with the intensity of someone who wants to win and keep winning. Max is a leader by his internal motivation, and it rubs off on all of us at practice.”
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