With the Ohio Valley Conference cross-country championships just a day away, senior Michael Atkins is gearing up for what may be the biggest race of his career.   

“I kind of have been thinking about this since June,” Atkins said.  

Atkins has huge plans for the OVC championship. He’s hoping to not only place in the top five but maybe even win.  

“Winning is on the table,” Atkins said. “I don’t believe that anybody is better than me. I see myself as the best runner in the field. It’s my crowd, and I’ve run this course more than anybody has in the entire town.”

His confidence doesn’t just come from anywhere. The belief in himself is backed by consistent 100 miles and above training weeks and a consistent diet.   

He’s in top shape and confident in his abilities going into the conference championship, but it wasn’t always this simple for Atkins.   

He struggled with eating disorders and depression during his freshman year. The road to get to this point wasn’t always so smooth.   

“I was thin. I was little,” Atkins said. “I just fell into a deep rabbit hole of following the stereotype of the skinnier you are, the faster you are. I started doing the things that I could control, which I thought was that.”  

The eating disorders he was fighting eventually led him to an injury-ridden freshman year and almost led to his family pulling him out of school to get help.   

The injury was hard to come back from by itself, Atkins said. It took hours of training on the bike, elliptical and swimming. Dealing with eating disorders and depression on top of that made the climb back to competing even harder, he said.  

Atkins wanted to get through these struggles to become a better runner, and though it wasn’t easy, he eventually did.  

Atkins credited retired EIU cross country coach Erin Howarth as one of the people that helped him get to this point.   

“She’s like a mom to me,” Atkins said. “She was such a good coach to me. She was somebody I could talk to about anything. When I was struggling with eating, she knew about it, and she was there for me.”  

Howarth had high praise for Atkins with the conference race coming up.   

“I wouldn’t put anything past him,” Howarth said. “He’s going to give it his all. He’ll be in that front group. There’s nothing he wouldn’t do to be the best version of himself.”  

Howarth wasn’t the only person at EIU that helped Atkins get to the point he’s at. Andrew Pilat, a cross-country alum, took Atkins under his wing in 2022 as a graduate runner.  

In previous years, Atkins said he always looked up to runners on his teams who were better than him, and that they always motivated him to be better.   

Pilat was one of those people who pushed him.  

In his freshman year, Atkins was able to place for the team at the conference race, something generally unexpected from a freshman. Him placing helped win the conference championship. Since then, Pilat has had a vision for him.  

“I remember telling him like, ‘Dude, one day you’re going to win this meet,’” Pilat said  

Last year Atkins placed 13th at the conference race, a finish he wasn’t satisfied with.  

Even though last year’s race didn’t go how Atkins wanted it to, Pilat has the same belief in him he had before.  

“Over the summer, he was feeling a little down,” Pilat said. “I told him, ‘Man, you can do this. You can win the conference meet. You have all the ingredients that are there. You have talent, you have guts, you have determination, you just need belief.’”  

Atkins says he has this belief in himself now. And he’ll be running on his home course.  

He has placed for the team in the conference meet every year since he’s been here, with his top placement coming in his sophomore year when he finished third.   

His accolades include making first team All-OVC in his sophomore year and second team All-OVC in his junior year.  

He will be running his final conference race for a chance at not only him winning overall, but for the team to win its third championship during his time at Eastern.   

The race will take place at 9 a.m. Friday at EIU’s Tom Woodall Panther Trail.  

Aaron Coffin can be reached at 581-2812 or at arcoffin@eiu.edu