Brownstown Central’s Paige McKain never thought this would be a possibility, but last week, she made it a reality when she signed her national letter of intent to continue her running career at Anderson University.

Running at the collegiate level would always cross her mind occasionally, but as she put it, “I never thought it was something that was really a possibility.”

That changed this past fall when a coach from Manchester University came up to McKain after one of her cross-country races. They showed interest in her potentially running for them, so McKain began to not only look at Manchester, but explore other schools as well.

In October, McKain took an official visit to Anderson.

“I found I really liked their coach, and I visited there over fall break,” she said. “They have a beautiful campus. I was also drawn to the fact that it was a Christian university. They have an excellent nursing program, which I want to pursue.”

It only took about a week after her visit that McKain officially decided to commit to Anderson. Then last Wednesday, McKain was surrounded by her parents, sister and cross-country coaches Maria Conklin and Derrick Koch to make things official.

This signing came off the heels of a stellar cross-country season. One that McKain called her most consistent.

Prior to this season, McKain spent her previous three years at Hamilton Southeastern. Her family went to school at Brownstown, so it was a bit of a homecoming when they moved back here and McKain got to be a Brave for her final prep year.

“It was definitely a big change, definitely a culture shock,” she said. “But I really like this school, and it’s been a good change.”

McKain was the top runner for the Braves all season long this past fall. She competed in sectionals and regionals with the team, and thanks to her performance at the regional, she qualified for the semistate meet as an individual.

She switched up her demeanor and training style to contribute to some of her success this season.

“It’s a lot more training on your own, which I’m not used to,” McKain said. “I also took a lot of the pressure off me.”

In addition to running cross-country and track at Anderson, McKain will be studying nursing, which will be four years of undergrad and then two more years of grad school.

This past year and a half dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic has shifted McKain’s career choice.

“I wanted to go into optometry for a really long time, and over covid, I kind of saw there was a really big need for nursing, I felt like it was what I was supposed to do,” she said.

She wants to potentially go overseas as well while studying, where she’s interested in doing mission work with nursing. McKain said she’s never been out of the country before, so that’d be a new experience for her.

Before she gets over to Anderson in a little less than a year, the Brownstown senior will be running track for the Braves this spring.

She said she likes the 3200, but is willing to run anything the team needs her to, as long as it’s 400 meters and up.

Her current training consists of building a base right now, then adding in tempo and threshold runs in January, before ramping up the speed work closer to track season.

All in all, McKain was happy to sign her NLI and make the next step of her academic and athletic career official.

“It’s definitely a stress-reliever, and I’m really excited about it,” she said. “I really love this school.”