Last season, senior cross country runner Brittany Tinsley redshirted due to an injury. This year, returning as a senior, Tinsley has completed the 6k course at the Paul Short Run at Lehigh University in seventh with a time of 20:08, took 15th at the ACC championship at 20:45, and won the individual championship with a time of 17:30 at the Wolfpack Invitational. Her performance at the Wolfpack invitational helped N.C. State secure a second place victory.
“You know she is going to perform for the team,” senior Kara McKenna said. “She always does. She is a leader by example. She does everything right. She is very knowledgeable about the sport, and you can just go off of what she does because she does everything correctly.”
Recruited from Russells Point, Ohio, Tinsley came to N.C. State already having a few career achievements under her belt. Prior to her college career Tinsley took fifth at the Foot Locker National Cross Country Championships, earning her All-American honors as a senior. She also won the state championship in the 1600 meters, earned all-state honors in cross country all four years, won the individual championship as a senior, and was a four-time conference and district cross country champion. With so many achievements, Tinsley drew in coach Laurie Henes’ recruitment her senior year.
“She started to run well her senior year in cross country,” Henes said. “I loved her attitude and her dedication to the sport was really evident right away.”
Over the past four years, Tinsley has continued to rack up accolades on her resume. In 2006 Tinsley took seventh place at the NCAA Pre-Nationals, 10th at the NCAA Southeast Regionals, and received all-conference and all-regional honors. Stepping up her game, in 2007 Tinsley won the All-ACC honors by placing fifth at the ACC championships and ninth at the NCAA Southeast Regionals, earning her all-region and All-ACC honors. In 2008, Tinsley’s career was temporarily halted due to injury.
“She did miss last cross country season and it was very frustrating for her,” Henes said. ” But she had a great track season. And I think she is much fitter right now than her last two races have shown. It’s a challenge mentally and she has to get herself back into it. She didn’t have the ACC performance that she wanted to have as a senior and that’s really tough.”
Tinsley leads by example and her return from her injury proves both her dedication to the sport and to her team.
“You can see the intensity in her training has dramatically risen,” McKenna said. “She has always been a very focused runner but I think she has stepped it up big time. As a leader of the team, she has goals and she does everything to accomplish them. She is a great leader on the team.”
During her redshirt season Tinsley proved to be a strong leader, leading by both example and through encouragement. Despite injury, Tinsley still attended practice everyday and lent her support to her teammates.
“They could still follow her lead even though she may not be leading the team in the race, she was still there everyday, really encouraging the girls along,” McKenna said.
Returning this year, Tinsley is still exhibiting that same leadership quality. For freshman Jordan Jenkins, Tinsley has been inspirational.
“She is so encouraging and really motivating,” Jenkins said. “I run the meet with her a lot and she helps me. She helps if I ever need anything, and I know I can go to her. She is the big sister kind of role on the team, both during running and outside of running.”
