SACRAMENTO, Calif. — On the other side of the country, Mandi Moxie spent her Friday trying to come to grips with the end.

The Knoch graduate and senior on the Queens University of Charlotte (N.C.) cross country team felt a palpable dread when thinking about crossing the finish line of a standout career.

“This is it,” Moxie said.

At approximately 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Moxie will finish her final race, this one at the NCAA Division II Championship at the Arcade Creek Cross Country Course.

“It's hard to think about,” Moxie said. “I don't know how to handle it. We were practicing on the course (Friday) and I said to my teammates, 'Guys, I don't know how to deal with this.' I've been running since I was 12 years old. It's been a decade. And now it's almost over.”

Like the other difficult things in her life that Moxie has had to overcome, she said she will find a way to come to grips with this, too.

After her first semester at Queens, she nearly packed her bags and came home to Saxonburg.

Instead, she stuck it out, reconciling with the hard truth that she was no longer the best runner on a cross country team and that college was radically different than high school, both in and out of the classroom.

“You just kind of find a way to live with it,” Moxie said. “You have to get yourself out of selfish mode.”

Moxie did that and has left her mark on the program at Queens.

This will be her fourth trip to the national meet. Last year, she placed 11th at the Southeast Regional Championship to earn all-region honors.

Queens has won three consecutive region titles.

“Every single year has been so awesome,” she said.

Moxie never intended to go to Queens after graduating from Knoch, where she won the WPIAL Class AA cross country championship during her senior year.

She finished 14th at the state meet that season.

Moxie intended to go to California (Pa.) University, but decided she would zig instead of zag.

“I was just talking about this the other day,” Moxie said. “If I wouldn't have (gone to Queens), I wouldn't have reached the success I have.

“I don't know why I did (go to Queens),” Moxie added. “Deep down I think I knew I needed to do it. It was hard leaving my family behind.”

After a rough first semester, Moxie has flourished.

What she will remember the most is the relationships she made and how tightly knit the cross country community is.

Even at the Division II level.

“It's not like track,” Moxie said. “In track it's like I don't like you just because you are wearing a different uniform. In cross country, everyone is so kind, even to people on the other team.

“I think it's because we all know how much we suffer,” Moxie added, chuckling. “We all get up for those 5:30 a.m. practices and then have a second practice in the afternoon. It's really hard and we all know it. When you finish a race, you stay at the finish line for the rest of the team. You see people smiling and crying and throwing up. It's so beautiful.”

Cross country is also an extension of what Moxie wants to do with her life after graduation this spring.

Always an outdoors type — Moxie and her family spent several weeks in the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee each year — she will earn her biology degree and hopes to be a conservationist.

“That's my calling,” she said.

So was cross country.

She has one goal for her final race Saturday.

“Make it my best race,” she said.