Natalie Rodriguez’s mother sat in front of her computer screen anxiously waiting.

Her daughter, a sophomore at CSUSM, was five hours north of the family home, representing the Cougars in their inaugural CCAA Conference Championship appearance.

At every chance, her mom refreshed the results waiting to see Natalie’s name pop up.
Within minutes of the cross country race concluding and a flurry of page refreshes later, the results were up—Natalie Rodriguez, CSUSM, 5th place.

“I went to my phone after the race,” Rodriguez said. “I was getting all these text messages from my mom…she was like ‘I knew you could do it.’”

But not even two months before this special moment, it appeared the season was over for Rodriguez as a knee injury all but derailed her 2015 cross country campaign.

“[I thought] I’m probably going to redshirt. I probably am going to miss the season,” the Santa Clarita native said.

Head Coach Steve Scott’s outlook was also bleak.

“I really thought she was done for the season. One more week, and I would have pulled the plug,” Scott said.

Following a season-threatening injury, Rodriguez turned to her mom, teammates, and coach as her support system. She cites her roommates Terra McGinnis, Kaylin Peterson and Megan Hamlin as her main support system besides her family.

Through physical therapy and the support of those around her, the 2014 National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics All-American beat the odds, returning to training.

“I started to feel better and started to run little by little… not as much as everybody else [was] doing but [it was] something,” Rodriguez said. “That gave me a boost of confidence.”

Despite training short distances—around two to five miles—and the short amount of time practicing with the team, Rodriguez came back in full force.

Rodriguez’s lifetime best at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco on Oct. 25 was more than she had hoped for.

“It was great to be able to get fifth. That was more than what I asked for. I was shooting just for All-Conference… [but I got] a PR too.”

In under two months, Rodriguez went from debating calling off her season to leaving her mark at Conference Championships. Not only was she the top Cal State San Marcos finisher, but she was named All-Conference, carved her way into the school’s record books with a fourth place tie in the 6K and was named Athlete of the Month in November.

“She is unlike 99 percent of all athletes; she has tremendous natural ability, and it doesn’t take
of lot of training for her to race well,” Scott said. “That was proven by how well she ran at Conference,” Scott said. “[She is] a once in a lifetime athlete.”