Slowly but surely, Natalie Swain is making the climb up the top of the Mountain West Conference female cross-country leaderboard. 

As a freshman at those conference championships, the Bingham Miner finished 59th.  As a sophomore, the Utah State runner was 39th.

On Halloween afternoon in Fresno, California, Swain surpassed those finishes by a mile. The Utah State University junior was 13th at these conference championships, best among Aggie female cross-country competitors. 

The South Jordan native’s time of 20:22.4 earned her second-team All-Mountain West Conference honors in her 6k race. It also earned her team a fourth-place finish at these championships. 

There was more than meets the eye to this feat, though. 

That top finish among all Aggies marked the fourth time in four races this season that Swain has accomplished such a feat. Never in her three-year career has the Bingham Miner been as prolific and as helpful to her team as she has in this, her junior year. 

Back in September 2023, Swain was named a Mountain West Conference Freshman Of The Week, and so you knew that these kinds of top performances, and even more than that, were in her. 

That same month saw the then-freshman winning a team title for the Aggies at one meet and then finishing 10th in the 1500 meters and 20th in the 5000 at the conference outdoor track and field championships. 

As a sophomore, Swain had a fifth place finish at the USU Alumni Challenge. That came in a 5K race. But it was her shaving a full minute off her best freshman time at the Paul Short Run back east that had her coach looking for more, and perhaps, knowing she was capable of more, once the team got back to Utah.  

“We are looking for some kids who are racing tomorrow to step up and show they deserve to race in the postseason,” team director Artie Gulden said last October. 

Running a 21:14.7 a long way from home and finishing 80th out of hundreds, and then wrapping up your regular season with a 57th place at the Wisconsin Pre-Nationals, highest among all Aggie women, will get the attention of anybody. 

It just so happened that the person Gulden was referring to was not Swain, who has been impressing the Aggie coaches, and setting all kinds of personal bests, since her arrival in Logan. 

Swain even competed in the indoor track season as a sophomore, running to 13th and 17th place finishes in the mile and 3000 meters at those conference indoor track championships. 

It was the first time the Bingham alum had done so in college, setting the scene for even more success and deserved accolades on the Aggies’ track and field teams. 

In addition, Swain, who is majoring in Data Analytics at USU’s Jon M. Huntsman College of Business, has been stellar in the classroom. As a freshman, she was named Academic All-Mountain West and a Mountain West Scholar-Athlete. 

At the conclusion of her freshman and sophomore years, Swain was not only named to those All-Academic teams in track and field, the Bingham Miner was recognized as a Joe E. and Elma Whitesides Scholar-Athlete, awarded to Utah State University students with a cumulative 3.2 grade point average.