NAMPA, Idaho – Bethany Danner had it all planned out.

After graduating from McCall-Donnelly High School, she put in a deposit to go to the University of Idaho. She had her classes figured out, was getting ready to join a sorority and was going to give up competitive running.

God had different plans for her, however.

Lying in bed one night she couldn't fall asleep and it suddenly hit her that she just couldn't go to Idaho. Instead, she would come to Northwest Nazarene and run for the cross country and track and field teams.

"Being able to step back and see God's hand in everything, not just transforming me in my running but my life," Danner said, "… I can't imagine where I'd be if I had gone my own way. God redirected my entire path."

Through hard work and lots and lots of running, Danner is now one of NNU's best female cross country runners and is primed for a strong senior season.

A big part of that was thanks to an internship she landed this past summer.

She went to Montana State University in Bozeman where she wrote code and used her math background to help design an algorithm to figure out if computer data was being attacked.

While there, she learned not only teamwork but found a solid group of runners to train with who pushed her hard.

"My partner for the code project was from Puerto Rico and English was his second language," Danner said. "He was a computer science guy with no math background and I have no computer science background.

"So, we were attached at the hip, pairing my math knowledge and him implementing that in the code. Together we were one very competent human and apart from each other we couldn't do anything. The main lesson was teamwork and how much more you can do on a team."

Danner, a math education major, didn't only gain knowledge about computers, she also deepened her faith and her running ability.

A Montana State alum who is potentially going pro in running befriended Danner at church and the two went on runs and worked out together.

"She was definitely higher caliber and so she would push me," Danner said. "That was a huge blessing for me, but she also pushed me spiritually. A lot of our runs were not just running, but working out my faith and helping me with that."

It's all resulted in a different approach for her final season, one that her coaches have noticed already.

"The biggest change I've seen with her is she is very detail oriented, but that can stress her out and she gets hung up on the little details," said Ben Gall, associate cross country coach. "She has gotten a lot better at letting things go, but she hasn't lost her work ethic in the process.

"I think with that more relaxed mindset, it is going to pay dividends for her this year in terms of her confidence in herself."

Danner finished 19th at the Great Northwest Athletic Conference championships last year and 48th at the West Region Championships. She has hopes of placing much higher this year and possibly qualifying for the national meet.

"Bethany has grown significantly in all ways that we teach as a program – spiritual, athletic, academic and socially," said Danny Bowman, head cross country and track and field coach. "She's grown into herself and has become a very solid leader for the women's team."