EDWARDSVILLE – Edwardsville's girls track and cross-country team has built up quite the reputation the past few years of developing outstanding runners that go on to excel at the next levels of the sports.
The Tigers' Victoria Vegher is one such example, signing a letter of intent to join the Columbia (Mo.) College women's track and cross-country programs beginning this coming fall in a ceremony at Edwardsville High School.
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The Cougars are a member of the NAIA, the small-college NCAA, and participate as members of the American Midwest Conference with schools such as Missouri Baptist, Harris-Stowe in St. Louis and Lindenwood-Belleville.
Vegher, who has been part of successful 4x800 relay teams at EHS among other events, will focus on middle-distance events at Columbia College. “We're going to focus more on mid-distance in college,” Vegher said. “I think I'm going to bounce around (events), like I do now, to see where I fit best on.”
Vegher made to decision to go to Columbia just recently. “I made my decision probably like March 6 – it was really late,” Vegher said. “When I went there to visit – when I first went there, I felt like I was uneasy about going there, but once I was there and I looked around, I felt like I belonged there. The campus was really small and I liked that; the ream's really nice; I met some of the girls there and they were really friendly, like my own team here.
“The team's small and I felt like I would help build it and I liked that aspect of it."
“It's exciting – Victoria's really earned this opportunity,” said Tiger cross-country coach George Patrylak. “She's one of our hardest workers and it's hard to believe – you kind of feel like Julianna (Determan) and Victoria have been kind of the glue to hold the program together the last couple of years. You've seen the dramatic shift in our distance program starting with their freshman years and they've been tremendous leaders.
“As excellent of a runner that Victoria is, we're definitely going to miss that leadership that she has set forth for us; she's one of the big reasons why we have become such a successful program for the distance runners. I know she's going to continue to do well; on the track is where she really excels and with the 800, she's been a staple for coach (Dustin) Davis and the distance program and the 4x800 all four years. I feel like that's where she's going to continue to have the most success in those middle-distance events in college.”
“Going back to when she was a freshman, she's always shown a pretty high level of maturity,” Davis said. “She's always been an athlete on her team that has come in and really established a pretty positive culture. For our girls to finish 16th in the state (in last fall's IHSA Class 3A girls state cross-country meet in Peoria), it's not just that, 'well, we had some good girls this year' – I have to go back four-time years to look at Allie Sweatt and Julianna and Victoria as freshmen really establishing the kind of culture on the team right now.
“In our 16th-place finish this year was a culmination of the last four-five years; Victoria was such a big part of that. She has been one of those athletes that, in track, has been kind of a big part of our resurgence; if you look from 2008 to 2014, we had no state qualifiers for the state track meet for distance, and we had some good years in there and distance wasn’t a part of it. A few years ago, we started to have some runners start to run well again in the spring and Victoria was a big part of that.
“She was a consistent member of my 4x800 year in and year out; if we take that 4x8 back to state again this year and Victoria chooses to run that, she’s probably going to be my leadoff person; she has nerves of steel, someone who just doesn’t back down any competitor. She has one of the best competitive spirits I’ve seen in an athlete.”
“She’s been a great leader; every workout, she will push the girls, no matter if it’s them trying to stay with her, or if she’s doing another workout with the sprinters, she’ll be cheering for them, making sure they’re doing their best also,” said Tiger girls track coach Camilla Eberlin. “We’ve got several candidates for the 4x400 and 4x800, but she’s a good leader; she’s right up there in the mix.”
Vegher also looked at Central Missouri, Southern Indiana in Evansville and the University of Indianapolis before deciding on Columbia College, where she plans on majoring in nursing. “I’m going to be one of their top girls,” Vegher said about running for the Cougars. “I’ll be up there racing a lot, probably.
“My mom’s a nurse and that was a major part of it,” Vegher said of her decision to major in nursing, “and I just like helping people and working with people.”
The Cougars have a new coach this year, Tracy Jex, who is working on building up the track and cross-country programs. “He’s building and that’s one reason he wanted me there,” Vegher said. “I felt like I could help him and I wanted to help; he’s a pretty amazing coach – his record’s pretty good (at Hannibal-LaGrange College and Colorado Christian before coming to Columbia), he’s had some national qualifiers.”
