Sophomore Erin O’Grady ran the hill workout alone in a practice earlier this season.

She had moved ahead of her teammates and had no one to run with and keep her going.

That’s when Megan Craig, the new graduate assistant coach, stepped in.

“She kept up with me and cheered me on,” O’Grady said. “She was cutting corners and was probably exhausted, but she did everything she could to keep me from slowing down.”

Craig said she does whatever she can to make sure that people aren’t running alone – all the way from the fastest to the slowest runners.

Craig’s encouragement is not new to the Panthers.

Eric Vetter, the former graduate assistant coach, could be seen at almost every meet running back and forth, cheering the team on.

At the 2006 Ohio Valley Conference Championship in Clarksville, Tenn., I almost got run over more than once because I was standing on the edge of the path where he was running along side an athlete.

“We know Vetter is gone because we don’t hear him yelling and going crazy anymore,” senior Brad Butler said.

Vetter moved on to become the Armory Director at the University of Illinois. The Armory is the indoor track and field facility for the Fighting Illini.

But Craig is different from Vetter in a big way.

Craig is a female.

I am not going to say that makes Craig any better or worse of a coach than Vetter, but it is a difference that people are noticing.

It is, in most cases, easier for the women on the team to relate to another female more so than they would a male.

“Not only is it a comfort thing, but she runs with us. Her times are easier for us to relate to than a guys times are,” O’Grady said.

Like it or not, women run less mileage than boys do and there is a difference in their times overall.

For example, last year Brad Butler, one of the top runners on the men’s team, ran a 6,000-meter race about 25 seconds faster than the top runner on the girls team, Nicole Flounders, ran a 5,000-meter race.

O’Grady said Craig’s times are more comparable to what the other women can attain and don’t seem as distant and unfamiliar as the men’s times do.

“Masanet, as great as he is, is still a boy. It’s nice to have that other point of view in a leadership role,” O’Grady said. “She is also younger, so it’s like she is our coach but it’s also easier to goof around with her, too.”

I think that Craig will bring an important dynamic to the women’s team that they aren’t used to having, which should only help them for the better.