Everyone on Waynesburg University’s women’s cross country program was running for a championship title on Saturday, yet for Angie Marchetti, the Yellow Jackets top runner, she ran for Jan. 6, 2017 – the day her father passed away.

Ever since her father passed away from stage-4 brain cancer, Marchetti said she and her twin sister, Becky, have dedicated every race to him.

“Personally, I had dedicated [the race] to ‘Marchetti Strong’ – in regards to my dad, who had recently passed away,” Marchetti said. “Just knowing that he was there watching over us, it was like a really awesome feeling…knowing it was my senior year too, it was really great just crossing the line like that.”

Entering the race, the conditions were not favorable with cold weather and continual rain. Marchetti said head coach Chris Hardie told her she had the opportunity of finishing first in the race, but Marchetti said she was unsure, hoping to at least secure a position in the top three.

“My goal was to run with [Teghan Simonton]. That was our group right there, to kind of pace off the other girls – the other conference girls that we knew were going to be right with us,” Marchetti said. “It actually turned out we [outpaced] them, but that’s kind of the game though, adapting to all those strategies out there.”

Throughout the race, though, Marchetti began to pull away, and by the two-and-a-half-mile mark, Marchetti said it came down to just her and another runner from Westminster College.

“It was just me and the Westminster girl just kind of going at it and we went down to the one field and I kind of surged a little bit and she didn’t come with me,” Marchetti said. “I kind of just kept going so she wouldn’t come with me, but honestly I had no idea how close or far she was behind me.”

It was during these moments that Marchetti looked down to her wrist where before every race she writes two words: Marchetti Strong – a remembrance of everything that her father did to fight cancer.

“Every time I was getting tired out there, I’d look down at my wrist and see the ‘Marchetti Strong’,” Marchetti said. “For what he had to go through – I was just toughening up a little more. What he had to go through is compared nothing to what I’m dealing with, he had it so much worse.”

While her father is no longer there to cheer and encourage his daughter on from the side of the trail, urging her to go faster, Marchetti said his presence is still with her at every race.

“I don’t know how to describe it, but when I’m running I get that second urge to keep going when I think about it,” Marchetti said. “I do feel he is helping me along the way.”

Through the rain, mud and the cold weather, Marchetti paced the pack of 118 runners, earning the Runner of the Year award and finishing first with a time of 23:18 – beating the second place finisher by over 10 seconds.

What led to the successful finish, said Marchetti, were those crucial moments just over halfway through the race when she pushed past the leading runner. And during those moments her father was with her.

“I honestly kind of feel it every race with him, but today especially,” Marchetti said. “When I did [pass] the girl [my father] was just saying ‘go, this is your time now – it’s yours.’”