The sophomore long-distance runner has the fourth-fastest time in Mountain West Cross Country Championships history, the fifth-fastest indoor 3,000-meter time in school history and is just the seventh women in program history to earn All-American honors in cross country.
The London, England, native will look to expand on her already impressive resume during the Broncos’ outdoor track and field season. She will compete at the Oregon Twilight on Friday.
“She’s good at just kind of getting into races and not being too worried about who she’s racing against or who’s next to her,” Wetli said. “She’s racing against some women who have done a lot more than she has at this point. But that doesn’t really seem to faze her. So she’s able to kind of detach from the outside perception of what she should be doing and really focusing on what she’s capable of doing.”
Wetli receives dozens of emails each day. But one caught his eye about three years ago. It was from a recruiting service that many United Kingdom athletes use for American recruiting purposes. That wasn’t it, though. He gets those every other day. It had to do with the athlete that it was promoting that day.
Marghini has been running since she was 8-years-old. She won the very first race she was in, too. It was 1.5 kilometers – just under a mile – at Westminster Primary School. Marghini led the entire way before having to stave off a late charge at the end.
“I just remember it being some kind of battle between us,” Marghini said. “So I was just completely on the ground. That feeling of exhaustion at the end of a race was the first time I’ve ever felt that.
“I didn’t want to experience it again.”
Only she did.
Over.
And over.
And over again in fact.
Marghini put together quite the resume, including being a four-time champion at the London Mini Marathon Borough where Prince Henry himself personally handed her the trophy one year.
“The highlight of that race was that he complimented my braids and I’ll never forget it,” Marghini said with a laugh. “I didn’t know what to do in the situation. I was just looking at him and then other people were talking. I don’t think I said anything.”
But by the time Wetli was on her, she hadn’t really run in two years.
Hoffa’s Fat Pad Syndrome, which is recurring pain in the anterior, center and front of the knee due to inflammation, in her right leg, put her on the shelf for 10 months. The injury is part of the reason why Marghini decided to come to the United States in the first place.
“We don’t really get any support here in the UK unless you’re really, really good,” Marghini said. “So there was nothing I could do about it. I didn’t get to see a physician for six months. It’s such a long process. It was definitely quite hard. It was probably one of the hardest moments of my life just dealing with that injury alone.”
Then the coronavirus pandemic shut down the world.
“It was really just talking to her and trying to get a gauge of what her mindset was and if she would be a good fit. How would she be as a teammate and a person? And all of those things were off the charts,” Wetli said. “So I would say from an athletic standpoint, we took a little bit of a chance on her, but everything else really checked out. And we were really excited about that part.”
So much so that Wetli and company had already penciled her into joining a starting lineup that was set to bring back six returners from a team that placed ninth at nationals – the third-highest in program history. However, that never really materialized.
Injury reared its ugly head again. This time it was the achilles – in her other leg.
Marghini didn’t even make her Boise State debut until the Mountain West Championships. She finished the 6K run in 21 minutes, 29.2 seconds and was 51st overall – seventh on the team. Marghini was 21 seconds faster at the NCAA West Regionals. But it was still only good enough to garner her 61st place.
(Photo from Boise State Athletics)
“I’m going to be honest, the cross season was the worst season of my life,” Marghini said. “Because I came back from another big injury that year. I didn’t run for 10 months and I didn’t cross train for 10 months. So just coming back from that was also very difficult. And then I had the achilles. That cross (season) was just not right.”
So after the season, Marghini flew back home where she trained with her father Abdelgalil. He’s the one who got her into running in the first place. The two spent weeks running around the city, passing iconic landmarks like Big Ben, Parliament and of course her personal favorite, Buckingham Palace as they went.
“We decided to really train hard because I needed to make up for it,” Marghini said. “I needed to gain my fitness. I needed to gain my self-esteem. So that holiday was just more about building myself up again and stuff.”
It worked.
Despite not really have run track in four years, Marghini set numerous personal records, won her first race as a Bronco in the 5,000 meters at the Fresno State Invitational, posted a top-4 finish in the event at the Mountain West Outdoor Track and Field Championships and came within just a few placings of qualifying for nationals.
“She could have responded a little differently. Not put her head down and gone to work and done things the right way. And she’s probably not an All-American this fall,” Boise State track and field head coach Corey Ihmels said. “But I think sometimes you have to have those moments. And it’s how you respond from those moments. There’s no guarantees. So you just have to be real about it. But then you have to keep it in perspective as well.”
Marghini did that in the fall with cross country.
She was Boise State’s top finisher in every race, including being runner-up at the Mountain West Championships. Her time of 19:41.6 was the fourth-fastest time in conference history. Marghini was even faster at regionals at 19:35.0 to place 10th. The finish qualified her for the NCAA Championships in Stillwater (OK.) on Nov. 19 when immortalized herself forever in the school’s record books.
Although early on, it didn’t look that way.
She was 164th out of 254 runners at the 1k mark of the race.
“She kind of looked at us and she snickered because she’s probably thinking, ‘This isn’t what coach told us to do,’” Ihmels said with a laugh. “I turned to somebody and said, ‘Well, this is gonna go one of two ways. This gonna be either brilliant or it’s gonna crash and burn here.”
It ended up being brilliant.
Marghini crossed the finish line in 20:12.9 for 35th in the 6k race to earn All-American honors.
“Typically, wherever you’re at about 2,000 meters into the race, is about where you’re going to finish. So if you’re going to be top-20 in the race, you need to be in the top-20 by that point,” Wetli said. “So it’s pretty rare to see somebody coming from that far back.”
She became the first Boise State woman to do so since Tyler Beling in 2020.
“I wouldn’t say that I couldn’t have imagined it because I’ve put so much belief in myself,” Marghini said. “I had these goals, these visions and I believed that I could be up there. I just needed to give it some time.”
Marghini returned home again after the season to run in the European Trials and the European Cross Country Championships where she finished 18th. She made her indoor track debut at the Husky Classic in Seattle (WA.) on Feb. 10 in the 3,000 meters. Marghini came in 23rd with the fifth-fastest time in school history (9.19.95).
But it ended up being her only race of the indoor season.
A “freak step” during a routine training run injured her other achilles (right). There was no ligament or tendon damage this time around. So as a precaution, she sat out the rest of the season to heal up for outdoor.
“I don’t know what happened,” Marghini said. “The warmup was fine. Everything was fine until that step. So all of this has been like, ‘Seriously, not again.’”
Marghini is just now working her way back. She’s ran in three meets, including coming off of her best showing at the Fresno State Invitational last weekend with an eighth-place finish in the 1,500. The plan is to get her back up to speed by the Mountain West Outdoor Championships on May 11 when Marghini will look to qualify for both the NCAA prelims and nationals in the 5,000. The 10,000-meter run is also a possibility, Ihmels said.
“In the past, I’ve had young ladies that have been where she’s been and have gone on to make Olympic finals. I don’t know if that’s possible, but let’s find out. I think that’s where she’s at now,” Ihmels said. “We’ve had some pretty prolific distance runners here. She’s no less talented than some of those young ladies. So it’ll be exciting to kind of sit back and see what she can do over the next couple of years.”
