Maribel Sanchez Souther’s Legacy Lives on Through Annual Invitational

On Saturday morning, Dartmouth's cross country teams will compete in the Maribel Sanchez Souther Invitational. The event is named after one of the Big Green's all-time greats, who graduated in 1996 and lost her multi-year battle with breast cancer on Dec. 31, 2016.

Since Sanchez Souther's passing, she hasn't been forgotten. She continues to be remembered in a number of ways, including through the annual home meet.

"This annual meet is significant and impactful because of the person it honors," said Porscha Dobson Harnden, Marjorie & Herbert Chase 1930 Director of Track and Field/Cross Country. "This is the only home cross country meet we host each year and since my short time at Dartmouth, it has drawn a large crowd of Dartmouth Athletics administrators, parents, spectators, an impressive number of alums, friends of Maribel and her husband and family."

The event speaks to Sanchez Souther's impact on all those she came in contact with, and beyond.
Maribel Sanchez Souther

"After her athletic then coaching career, she still had a great impact on the school, and the community too," said Ellen O'Neil, Sanchez Souther's head coach for her final three seasons. "When Maribel left coaching, she continued to live in the Upper Valley.

"It was hard not to feel her presence all the time."

The presence was of a trailblazer, who was often described as an exceptional competitor.

"She was relentless and strong," said O'Neil. "Everybody who saw Maribel run would comment on her strength, specifically for a distance runner who was racing 6,000 meters. Her power and strength were second-to-none. That, and her tenacity, made her so exceptional.

"Maribel didn't have great finishing speed, but she was strong in the mile all the way up to the 6K," O'Neil continued. "That set her apart."

Sanchez Souther's results set her apart as well. She was a four-time All-American athlete and seven-time Ivy League Heptagonal Champion, but her impact carried to those around her.

"She turned the program around," said O'Neil, "Her senior year, we were fifth in 1996 at NCAAs. We were the only non-scholarship school in the mix. We were beating Wisconsin and really good teams. What a huge impact she had."

A big part of the impact came through accountability.
Maribel Sanchez Souther

"It was a time when we were good, but we became quite excellent," said O'Neil. "It's easy to make excuses when your performances aren't going well, but she didn't let herself, or other people, make excuses. Maribel held herself accountable, but she expected everybody else around her to also hold themselves accountable.

"For us, that was the game changer."

Kristin Manwaring McGee was a classmate and close friend of Sanchez Souther's, who actually grew up one high school apart in New York.

"We were rivals in high school," said McGee. "She was my age, but came on the scene much stronger much earlier. Our freshman and sophomore year in high school, she was winning everything and I was a little bit of a later bloomer. She was somebody I always had my eye on."

Sanchez Souther and McGee ended up choosing the same college and would often run together.

"We would train together all summer," said McGee. "We were in each other's weddings."

McGee looked up to Sanchez Souther.

"Running is an individual sport on some level and certainly, Maribel was a fierce individual competitor, but she also really cared about the program," said McGee. "I think about her in that period of time (the mid 90s) as someone who really turned the program around.

"In my mind, her name is synonymous with the Dartmouth program."

Sanchez Souther lost her battle with cancer, but her legacy lives on in so many ways. Her original diagnosis happened pretty innocently and out of the blue, as many cancer diagnoses often do.

"We were still close then and we would walk a lot," said McGee. "She was pregnant with her youngest and she mentioned this bone pain. It was thought that maybe the baby was leaning on her breast bone.

"Very quickly, she found out it was metastatic and very quickly, she wasn't responding to medications that some people with stage four breast cancer were able to be on for years." McGee continued. "It obviously was aggressive. I remember thinking if this is getting her, this cancer is a beast because she is the toughest woman I know."

Sanchez Souther gave it everything she had, approaching the cancer battle similar to her fierce, intense approach to running.

"She actually continued to run for a very long time, even after diagnosis, almost up until she couldn't physically do it anymore," said O'Neil. "I was amazed she was still running and training, maybe not to the level she had been, but she was still taking it pretty seriously.

"I was always impressed by her optimism and always willing to look for a possible solution."

Sanchez Souther was looking for a solution for herself, but most importantly, her family.

"She had three children and that's all she was thinking about," said McGee. "At the end, she just wanted to live for them. It was heartbreaking."
Maribel Sanchez Souther

O'Neil recollects Sanchez Souther's road.

"It never seemed like it was going to be a dead end, but she was always looking for the next option," said O'Neil. "We would talk a lot when she was driving to her appointments in Boston, then she ended up exploring any and all options, including eastern medicine. She tried anything, which I always commended her for."

Sanchez Souther was similar on the race course in never giving up.

"She was a very flexible racer," said O'Neil. "She never folded. She never tanked in a race. Some days, maybe they weren't the best race, but that's part of being an athlete. She was always willing to think about the next race and what she could do differently."

O'Neil, who stayed close with Sanchez Souther after her graduation, was an integral part of her growth and development.

O'Neil even admits Sanchez Souther was easy to coach.

"In NCAAs, we were talking strategy and I had said if you really want to be an All-American, you'll have to go out with that top group," said O'Neil. "After I said it, I wasn't sure if it was the best advice. I have to say as the race was unfolding, I was starting to second guess myself a little bit and thought maybe I didn't give her the best strategy for an NCAA Championship, but each time I saw her, she just kept digging in."

Sanchez Souther ended up finishing in the top 20.
Maribel Sanchez Souther

"It was unbelievable given the talent throughout the country," said O'Neil. "I remember thinking wow, she's really making me look smart and I don't even know if I gave her the right advice."

It didn't matter. As O'Neil said, Sanchez Souther could "do it all."

"She can race in so many different ways," said O'Neil. "I bet if I gave her another strategy, it would have worked. It made coaching her easy in some respects."

Sanchez Souther held most of the Dartmouth women's cross country records, including the highest finish at the NCAA Championship until Abbey D'Agostino '14, whom Sanchez Souther later recruited to Dartmouth.

In 2002, Sanchez Souther returned to Dartmouth to serve as assistant coach before becoming head coach from 2003 to 2010. She was a student and fan of the sport, continuing to be drawn back to Dartmouth and running.

"Maribel was a runner, but she also was a fan… a huge fan," said McGee. "She loved watching the sport. We both qualified for the Olympic Trials and she would love to go watch even if she wasn't running."

Sanchez Souther is remembered in so many different ways, on and off the race course.

"She was super funny, fun, silly and loved to have a good time," said McGee. "I love flipping through some pictures because it's fun to remember that part of her, which can get lost in the story a little bit."

"I'm stating the obvious when I say we certainly miss her and we think about her a lot," said O'Neil. "Her teammates think about her often. Her name comes up a lot in the running community."
Maribel Sanchez Souther as a coach

Sanchez Souther loved to watch racing, and so many loved watching her.

"People really supported her when she was an athlete," said O'Neil. "She was a powerful woman."

The present-day Big Green women's and men's teams take center stage on Saturday, running in the name of Maribel Sanchez Souther.

"Our men's and women's cross country teams look forward to competing on home turf and representing a rich history of Dartmouth distance running imprinted by Maribel Sanchez Souther's success and character as a runner, coach and person," said Dobson Harnden.

"Although I did not have the pleasure of meeting Maribel in person, through her loved ones in the Big Green and running community, I know this meet elicits happy memories of Maribel and the pride of Dartmouth running and our sport at large."

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