PALATINE, Ill. – Transferring from one school to another can sometimes be a little difficult.  There is a new campus to get used to, new teammates to get along with and overall, a different routine to settle into.  Jordan Wagner (Schaumburg, Ill., Schaumburg), the top runner of Harper College women's cross country team, made that move when she decided to come to Harper this season.  But helping ease that transition has been a familiar face.  James Macnider, Wagner's current coach, is the brother of Wagner's high school coach, Jon Macnider.
 
Wagner has been a welcome addition to the team this season after transferring to Harper for financial reasons and has been steadily improving in hopes of qualifying for the national meet.  Her performance in the last two meets, the North Central Cardinal Classic and the Benedictine Invitational, have led her to being named Harper College's sixth Athlete of the Week.
 
The sophomore placed 15^th at North Central's meet on Sept. 28 and  placed 30^th at Benedictine's meet on Oct. 5.  Her time of 19:41 from two weeks ago was an improvement of over a minute.
 
Wagner's success is no surprise because her running ability has led her to being a part of some standout teams, the first of which was during high school.  At Schaumburg High School, she ran for Jon and helped lead the Saxons to conference, regional and state championships in 2010.  It was there that she met James for the first time as he was coaching the boys team.  So how do the Macnider brothers stack up against each other?
 
“There are definitely similarities between the two,” Wagner said.  “Their training styles are pretty similar, and that's from all of the years that they were together, year in and year out.  We didn't run the same exact workouts as the guys team but we would be there with them and it'd usually be the same style of workouts.  Here, the training is much more geared towards the college level.  The distances are longer, the season is a little bit longer.”
 
After Schaumburg, Wagner ran at Macnider's alma mater, North Central College, for one season.  There, she helped the Cardinals to a CCIW championship and was also voted the North Central College Freshman of the Year.  But her greatest thrill was running at the national meet with her team, which placed 16^th.
 
At North Central, Wagner was primarily focused on the team's score and how her performance would impact that score.  At Harper, Wagner is one of two girls on the team, along with Gabby Beaupre, so it's been a little bit of an adjustment.  Since they train together, the boys squad, along with Wagner and Beaupre, think of themselves as more of one team.
 
“I'm really glad to be running for the team here,” Wagner said.  “It's a smaller team, but it's really tight and close-knit.  It's like a family.  We're all out there supporting each other.
 
With her success, Wagner hopes to bring more notoriety to the school and help build the program up so that female runners want to come out for the team.
 
“It'd be nice to start laying the foundation out and start building the team from here,” Wagner said.  “If we can do some work at meets and start getting our name out there, then hopefully people will start hearing about it.”
 
The adjustment into life at Harper has been an easy one for Wagner, who also plans on running track for the Hawks in the spring as a sprinter and middle distance runner.  She is able to commute and still take the same general education classes that she would have taken at a more expensive school like North Central. 
 
“I really like it a lot here,” Wagner said.  “My classes are going really well and my professors are so helpful.  They are always there and flexible with everything.
 
Next year, she plans on attending either DePaul University or the University of Illinois-Chicago, with the possibility of continuing her running career.  For now though, Wagner and the rest of her teammates are focused on training and prepping for the Region IV meet on Oct. 27 and the national meet on Nov. 10.

"Jordan has steadly improved through the season to the point that I believe that she can be a top-15 finisher at the national meet," Macnider said.  "She has a great work ethic and it will pay off."
 
“The workouts are coming together just right, like Coach Macnider planned,” Wagner said.  “He has different phases so you feel the best at the right time of the saeson.  I'm hoping to keep improving from here and when we start tapering for those championship meets, it should be fun.”