In 2020, at the height of the pandemic, The University of Texas at Dallas added track and field to the existing cross country team, firing the starter’s gun on a program racing to the top of the American Southwest Conference (ASC). Two of the most decorated members of the team are scholarship athletes — students who received academic scholarships.
Graeme Maclean (left) runs up a snowy hill at the NCAA West Regional in Spokane, Washington, while Trent Sakakini (right) breaks away from the pack at the 2022 Cross Country Championships in Marshall, Texas. Photo credits from left include Whitworth University Athletics and East Texas Baptist University Athletics.
Portraits are by Dylan Kuester.
Distance runner Graeme Maclean, a computer science senior in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science, is the first UT Dallas cross-country runner to win the ASC individual title while holding the school and conference records in the eight-kilometer (about five miles in 25 minutes and 34.6 seconds) race. Maclean is also an ASC Academic All-Conference honor student.
GRAEME MACLEAN
Teammate Trent Sakakini BS’21 MS’23 is an ASC Academic All Conference student and a UT Dallas record holder in the 1,500-meter (three minutes, 57 seconds), 800-meter (one minute, 53 seconds) and three-kilometer steeplechase (nine minutes, 24 seconds) races. With a master’s degree in mechanical engineering, Sakakini is employed by Lockheed Martin Corp. as a guidance, navigation and control engineer and serves as a volunteer assistant to Danielle Kcholi, head cross country/track and field coach.
“I love the opportunity to be able to encourage and help out a program that helped shape me into who I am today,” he said. “I have always looked up to the coaches I have had, and I hope that I can help the team the same way my coaches have done for me.”
The season for track and field covers two semesters and afternoons of glory that soon give way to months-long training cycles: fighting fatigue, injury or the alarm clock. The motivation to hit the pavement at 6 a.m. every day was also necessary to meet the rigors of the mechanical engineering program at UT Dallas.
“A lot of times, I’ll do a homework assignment, then work the problems again just to make sure I knew the material well,” Sakakini said.
Like his teammate, Maclean believes athletics does not happen without academics happening first. He credits self-discipline for much of his success in class and on the track. Maclean says incremental changes in performance, the result of daily training, mirror the extra effort he applies to class assignments. Like looking into a mirror, Maclean’s identical twin brother Nick also attends UT Dallas as an arts, technology and emerging communication major, focusing on computer game development.
“We both find UTD to be a great fit,” Graeme Maclean said. “There is a very unique student culture here. When I talk to friends on different campuses, there’s no other college even remotely similar to what we have. It’s a place where everyone sort of finds their way to flourish. It’s quite amazing.”
That positive culture extends to the track and field program. As an assistant coach, Sakakini has seen a remarkable shift in the culture under Coach Kcholi — particularly in the quality of recruits — along with an elevated sense of community between the athletes and coaches.
“My first year was a lot different than my fifth year,” Sakakini said. “Coach Kcholi helped me find my path, recognizing what worked for me, and she was fully supportive. Honestly, my motivation came from the support of the coach and the team. You work hard to not let them down.”
Mental toughness and perseverance are critical to success in any sport. To the uninitiated, distance running may appear to be an individual effort, pounding a long, lonely road. But it becomes a team sport during the conference and national championships where scoring is based on placement, not time, cross country members say. In addition to the competitions, camaraderie and team spirit are fostered during early morning runs, they said.
“Our distance runners are in season from August to May, so they’re training together all the time which creates this sense of commonality, putting in the work and supporting each other,” Kcholi said.
TRENT SAKAKINI
Teamwork, problem-solving and self-discipline are just a few of the common traits shared by all student athletes. Despite the occasional setbacks that come with every sport, the young cross country/track and field program is well-positioned for the upcoming transition to Division II competition. As the standard bearers, Maclean and Sakakini have set the pace academically and athletically for the team’s future success.
“I get kind of lucky since students come here for the engineering and computer science programs because they don’t have Division II options that match what we offer academically,” Kcholi said. “The cool thing about Trent and Graeme is they have an equal ratio of talent and hard work.”
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