DAVIS, Calif. -- When Big West Conference commissioner Dennis Farrell handed the 2011 women's cross country championship trophy to UC Davis, most of the Aggie team members stepped back. Senior team captain Samantha Kearney then gave a gentle nudge to one particular teammate, sophomore Sarah Sumpter, urging her to step up as the one to physically accept the hardware.

On paper, the choice makes perfect sense: Sumpter finished second in the meet with a time of 20 minutes, 33.7 seconds, trailing only Long Beach State's Rosa Del Toro in her bid to reclaim the individual title won two years prior. Sumpter led three Aggies in the top 10, with Alycia Cridebring (eighth) and Kristine Lozoya (10th) also posting All-Big West finishes. 

In reality, Sumpter's finish to the race represented a road much longer than the six kilometers from the starting line.

The Cloverdale, Calif., native earned Big West Conference Athlete of the Year honors two years earlier, thanks to her individual championship at the league meet. She became the Aggies' first Big West cross country champion, and only the second freshman in conference history to achieve that feat. However, on the eve of the 2010 season, Sumpter was diagnosed with a brain tumor. She underwent emergency surgery, then in compliance to her doctor's orders, sat out the subsequent cross country season to recuperate. 

By the following January, Sumpter was cleared to return to team practices but took part in limited workouts. In early March, she entered the Aggie Open as an unattached competitor. Sumpter placed seventh in the race with a time of 10:08.67, her only competition for the season – a solid early-season effort for most runners, but a true testament of her resolve. When summer rolled around, Sumpter was ready to take on the challenge of the cross country season.

"It was the first time since my surgery where I felt like I was going into the training on equal footing with my teammates. I did the same workouts as them, followed the same plan," she told ESPN's Julia Savacool in a 2011 interview.

To be clear, cross country is a team sport, and Sumpter's desire to win mirrored her team's overall goal. As head coach Drew Wartenburg recalls, the return of his former champion inspired the team, but the desire to stand on the winner's stage pervaded the entire roster.

"The women's team entered the fall of 2011 with commitment to earning a conference championship," said the two-time Big West Coach of the Year. "During those years, nothing could be taken for granted at the Big West meet, but the entire women's team shared a goal and a willingness to do what was necessary to achieve that objective.

"From a competitive and emotional standpoint, Sarah's return to the active roster after her 2010 diagnosis and surgery served as a rallying point, but the 2011 season, including the championship meet, was by no means a one-woman show."

Indeed, winning a team title takes more than one runner and one high finish. In cross country, the team scoring is based on the top five finishers. UC Santa Barbara matched UC Davis with three runners in the top 10, but finished third on the final team leaderboard. Cal Poly placed two among the top five, but took fourth overall. The Aggies sought to place all five of its scorers among the top 15 to ensure the best chances of a team title.

For what it's worth, the 2011 Aggies enjoyed an influx of running talent in addition to Sumpter's return. Lozoya was a redshirt freshman who posted a pair of top-10 finishes early in the season. Krista Drechsler was the top UC Davis runner in three meets during the previous season, including a 14th-place showing at the Big West meet.

Furthermore, the roster also served as a harbinger of success for both UC Davis cross country and track & field. Cridebring's All-Big West finish was the first of three straight in cross country. She later set a school record and won a Big West track title in the 5,000 meters. Katie Fry, a freshman on the 2011 cross squad, later became the first Aggie woman to break the 10-minute barrier in the steeplechase, earning All-America honors in that event in 2013. The list of newcomers included two future middle distance standouts Lauren Wallace, who later won outdoor All-America honors and a USATF indoor 1,000-meter title; and Raquel Lambdin, a 2015 All-American and three-time Big West champion in the 1,500 meters. 

That 2011 season was also second on staff for 2009 alum and assistant coach Kim Conley, who later earned two trips to the Olympic Games. It was also the first year for then volunteer assistant coach Devin Elizondo, who has since taken over the cross country and distance teams at UCLA.

For UC Davis women's cross country as a whole, the 2011 title also kicked off an impressive run at the Big West meet. The Aggies posted two close second-place showings in 2012 and 2013, missing the title by just three and seven points, respectively. The team then reclaimed the championship in 2014, thanks to four Aggies among the top 10.

For her part, Sumpter went on to earn All-West Region and All-Big West Conference honors in cross country in 2012, while claiming three individual titles, a Big West Athlete of the Year and All-America award in track after her return. This is an impressive body of accomplishments for any student-athlete, let alone one still undergoing treatments for cancer. Almost exactly five years after her passing in September 2015, Sumpter was posthumously inducted into the Cal Aggie Athletics Hall of Fame.

According to Wartenburg, Sumpter was more pleased by the 2011 team championship than she was her 2009 individual title. "Sarah's colorful words can't be repeated here, and I remember looking at [associate athletics director] Nona Richardson's wide eyes even as we both know that Sarah's statement stood as the strongest endorsement for the power of team," he said. 

Wartenburg also gives a nod to Kearney, who later served as an assistant coach for the Aggies. Successful teams benefit from successful leadership, he said, and her job as captain was "one of the best jobs leading a team" he has seen in his illustrious career as a coach.

"Sam's determination to put a team atop the podium characterized the tone for the season from report date onward, and the chemistry of the group aligned according to a shared vision of complete buy-in," said Wartenburg, who won his second career Big West Conference Coach of the Year for that 2011 title. He won his first after leading the Aggie men to the team title in 2010.

Nine years later, the 2011 cross country championship holds a special place for Wartenburg. "I'm struck by the fact that one of the strengths of that group was that each woman identified and filled her own specific role for the good of the group," he said. "It was not a season without bumps in the road, as is always the case, but there was also a sense of inner confidence that if each person did her job on the day, the outcome would positively reflect those efforts."

INSET PHOTO: The 2011 Big West cross country champions on the winner's podium. From left to right: Devin Elizondo, Kim Conley, Sarah Sumpter, Kristine Lozoya, Katie Fry, Samantha Kearney, Alycia Cridebring, Drew Wartenburg, Lauren Wallace, Shannon Harcus, Kristina Taylor and Krista Drechsler. (Credit: Matt Brown)

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