"It turns out I was good at it," said Golden Eagles sophomore Anna Weber, who happened to be one of those girls.,”Eight years ago at Krueger Middle School in Michigan City, Ind., a basketball coach told a group of hopeful girls during team tryouts that they would make the team if they ran cross country.

Marquette sophomore runner Anna Weber was one of those girls.

"It turns out I was good at it," Weber said. "I think that's the story for a lot of cross country runners. We don't choose the sport; it kind of chooses us."

Running may not have been Weber's first love, but she will be the first say that running is what got her to Marquette. As Weber sees it, without running she may very well still be in Michigan City.

About 25 miles east of Gary, Ind., Michigan City has a population of 32,900 and a median household income of $33,732, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. As a basis for comparison, many of the surrounding suburbs of Milwaukee that are similar in size to Michigan City have median household incomes of more than $60,000.

"A lot of people don't make it out of Michigan City," said Weber. "My school had a drop out rate of like 48 percent."

Weber found an outlet from the disappointment of her hometown through athletics. She did in fact make that sixth grade basketball team, playing until her freshmen year in high school. Also a talented soccer play, Weber was forced to give that up to pursue cross country.

"My mom's reasoning for kind of forcing me to do cross country was that at our high school you couldn't get a scholarship for soccer," Weber said. "But just about anywhere you can get a scholarship for running."

There was little argument from Weber, who by then was enthralled by the sport. She had become, in her own words, "obsessive" about running. From her eating habits to her sleeping habits, her life had been shaped around running.

Then, one day, everything changed.

"I just had a revelation that there is more to life than this," said Weber. "I stopped worrying so much about how I ate and what I ate and just started being a normal teenager."

Weber said that with the decreased pressure on herself, not only did she become a better friend and a better daughter, but she became a better athlete as well.

During her junior year of high school, a visit from current teammate and former high school rival Cassie Peller turned Weber onto Marquette.

Weber visited Cornell University a week before she was scheduled to tour Marquette and loved it so much that she almost called off the trip to Milwaukee. Fortunately, her mother Kathy intervened again. She persuaded Anna to tour Marquette.

While Weber's life is no longer overtaken by running, she has hardly lost her zeal.

"She's a fierce competitor," said head coach Mike Nelson. "She cares a lot about seeing what type of runner she can become."

At the Big East Championships in Louisville, KY., Weber finished 27th with a time of 21:36.50. She has finished in the team's top five in all five races this year.

"I would like to eventually be an All-American," said Weber. "By senior year that would be awesome."

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