**This story was featured in Saturday's SMU game program.**

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Foundation

Maggie Montoya has a unique way to get away.

When it came time to decide on a college, the 17-time state champion from Rogers, Ark., climbed into an empty Christmas tree box.

"That's where I made my decision, because my parents would not stop bothering me. They were like, `You have to tell us by the end of the day,''' Montoya said. "So, I hid in there so that they couldn't find me. . . . When I compared everything, Baylor had the best options and it's where I felt I would probably be happier. I knew more people here, and I would be closer to home."

Since making that Christmas tree box decision four years ago, Montoya has been like the gift that keeps on giving. She has earned a combined 10 All-Big 12 honors, in track and cross country twice made it to the NCAA Cross Country Championships and ran anchor leg on the distance medley relay that placed fourth at the 2015 NCAA Indoor Championships.

"My freshman year, I came in and I was so nervous I wasn't going to make the travel squad," she said. "I ended up making it, but I had no idea what I was doing. I got to the regional meet, and I didn't know how the scoring worked, didn't know the top 25 got medals, and I didn't know this was the meet that gets you to nationals."

A constant in Baylor's cross country lineup in each of her previous three seasons, Montoya was an all-region pick as a sophomore when she helped the team make it back to the NCAA Championships for the first time in five years.

Then last year, Montoya made it as an individual with a runner-up finish at the regional meet.

"It was kind of sad going to nationals by myself. I was very lonely, missing (my teammates)," she said. "You get more one-on-one time with your coach, but it's actually kind of nice being distracted with your teammates. I was just sitting in my hotel room, not knowing what to do. I got way more stressed. And I also had a bout of really bad allergies that kind of hit me hard the second day. . . . I tried to go out, but I just wasn't feeling it."

Despite adding three All-Big 12 honors in track, including a runner-up finish in the 5,000 meters at the outdoor meet, Montoya admits that she was "mentally and physically exhausted" last spring. "I wasn't quite loving the sport as much as I wish I would have."

Dealing with a breathing issue in the spring, she didn't finish the 3,000-meter run at the Big 12 indoor meet and then couldn't finish the 5,000 at the NCAA West Prelims.

"Halfway through, I started having cloudy vision and lost feeling in my arms, so I had to stop," said Montoya, who found out she has a vocal-cord dysfunction. "It's something that can't be treated with medicine. I forgot that I got tested for it in high school. We figured it was probably triggered with anxiety, so I've got to learn how to kind of calm down."

Coming into her senior season and second year as a team captain, Montoya knows she has to help lead a squad that could have three or more newcomers in the lineup.

"Every captain is different. Like Mariah (Kelly), she gave these phenomenal speeches. She's very vocal," she said. "I'm not a very vocal person, and my co-captain, Madie Zimmerman, is not very vocal. But she's very organized . . . she's very good at communicating and figuring things out. I just try to lead by example. I told them before one of the meets, `I'm not going to tell you guys that you better make it to the line or die,' because that's just not me."

With talented freshmen Anna West and Gabby Satterlee and Washington transfer Lyndsey Bradley joining Montoya, Zimmerman and fellow seniors Peyton Thomas and Alex Davis, "we know what we're capable of doing," Montoya said.

"We know that if we all step up, we'll do great things," she said. "We have some phenomenal freshmen coming in, so we have way more depth this year. This is the kind of depth we had our sophomore year. Last year, we just didn't have the depth."

At the season-opening Bear Twilight Invitational, Montoya won her second individual title with a 4,000-meter time of 13:44.2, with Thomas, West and Satterlee all finishing in the top seven. Even without Davis and Bradley, the Bears beat SMU and TCU in head-to-head matchups.

"It was good to get something fast and short in and for all the freshmen to get a chance to feel it out," Montoya said.

A health science major, Montoya did an internship this summer and plans on going to pharmacy school after taking a year off and maybe pursuing a pro track career.

"If I can't go pro right out of college, I will still work and put in another year or two (of training)," she said. "It's just seeing where my options are. I'll have to try to figure that out. But, I do want to try."