Madeline and Emily Vining have always had built-in running buddies: each other. Growing up, they also had a built-in coaching staff at home: their parents.
The University of Toledo juniors are twin sisters competing in cross country and track and field for the Rockets. Together, they have been integral to the Rockets’ success, helping the Midnight Blue and Gold win back-to-back Mid-American Conference cross country titles. The twins will each earn two degrees this spring from the University that is just down the street from where they grew up in the Toledo neighborhood of Old Orchard.
CELEBRATING SUCCESS: UToledo recognizes the Class of 2023 with a series of stories featuring students receiving their degrees at spring commencement.
Madeline and Emily began running when they were in kindergarten, taking after their father, Dan. Dan picked up running in college, and he is now an ultra-endurance athlete who competes in triathlons, including at the full Ironman level. He passed on his love of running to his daughters, not only as their father, but as their first coach.
“My dad was the cross country coach at my grade school, and Emily and I were followers of my father,” Madeline said. “We were like, ‘We want to try running,’ and so we started running in kindergarten and have been running ever since. My dad was our coach up until high school, so it was kind of a father-daughter bonding thing.”
Their mother, Patti, also was involved in their early running careers, coaching with Dan during the sisters’ grade-school years. Patti remained involved as her children entered high school, assisting with transporting the team to meets, organizing meet-day snacks and helping with the team’s senior breakfast.
One of the extra benefits of having their father as their coach was the close connections it helped form.
“We could be in an argument or in a disagreement, and we would go running and it would maybe be quiet for about the first mile,” Dan said. “But after that it would just melt away. We would have some of the deepest conversations that you can imagine.”
As Emily and Madeline transitioned from high school to college, they began facing stronger competition at the Division I level while growing individually as athletes. Madeline experienced greater success athletically prior to college, but Emily took a competitive jump as a freshman, earning 2019 MAC Freshman of the Year honors in cross country as the top freshman finisher at the MAC Championship meet. Emily came into college unsure if she would even make the travel team as a freshman, and she ended the season contributing to the Rockets’ points total in both the MAC Championship and Great Lakes Regional meets.
“I said I wanted to run at the MAC Championships at least once in my career,” Emily said. “Looking at previous people who I knew on the team, it seemed it would be very challenging to get there as a freshman. But in the wave of it, it was like, ‘Why should I not be going for this team?’ ”
Following their freshman season, Madeline began to catch up to Emily in her development. Madeline joined Emily at the MAC Indoor Track and Field Championships in 2021, where the sisters led the distance medley relay team to a second-place finish and second-team All-MAC honors. In the MAC Outdoor Championships later that year, they finished back-to-back in the 5000m as Emily placed fourth and Madeline finished fifth.
The sisters’ success continued over the next two seasons as accolades began to pile up. At the 2022 MAC Cross Country Championships, Emily (eighth place) and Madeline (10th place) made the All-MAC second team to help the Rockets clinch their second-straight conference championship. Madeline rewrote the Toledo track and field record book during the 2023 indoor season, breaking the school record in the 3,000m with a time of 9:16.87. Meanwhile, Emily led the distance medley relay team to another runner-up finish at the MAC Championships.
Emily Vining, left, graduates with a dual degree in marketing and sales, is a captain on the cross country and track and field teams; Madeline Vining, who graduates with degrees in economics and political science, is a student trustee on The University of Toledo Board of Trustees.
The two sisters have continued to push each other through healthy competition to become better runners. Living in essentially the same body provides an extra boost of motivation as they look to each other to recognize their own capabilities as runners.
“It motivates me because I’m like, ‘Well, I’m the same person as her, so I can do that if she could do that,'” Madeline said. “It motivates her as well because she’s like, ‘Well, she’s doing it too. I want to do that as well.’ So it’s definitely a good thing.”
Emily enjoys having her sister as a training partner and teammate. “In a lot of races, we end up racing together, and we work out together all the time,” Emily said. “My mom loves that. I think her dream is to watch us hold hands crossing the finish line as if we’re finishing together.”
Madeline and Emily have continued to develop as athletes and leaders. Emily is now a captain on the cross country and track and field teams. Meanwhile, Madeline took on a different leadership role off the track.
Madeline turned to head coach Andrea Grove-McDonough after hearing about an open student position on The University of Toledo Board of Trustees. Grove-McDonough helped and encouraged her through the application process. Madeline was selected to the position and began her term on the board on July 2.
“I was in that room not too long ago as they had a proclamation, and to see her sitting there and comfortable in that space was a really proud moment for me,” Grove-McDonough said.
Both Madeline and Emily recognize the ways that Grove-McDonough has helped shape them as athletes and as women.
“Andrea gives us this empowering energy to want to go meet these amazing people and do all these amazing things,” Madeline said of her coach. “She has helped us in those kinds of ways like believing in ourselves, knowing that you can only fail if you don’t try, putting all your effort and energy into something and trying your best.”
Added Emily: “She really advocates on mentoring not just in athletics but mentoring as a person to be very independent and powerful women outside of the sport. We have a relationship outside of running, and it’s a place where I can talk about anything and she’s there and she really knows me. She’s awesome. I would not have any other coach in the world.”
Despite taking nearly identical paths athletically, Emily and Madeline have different academic interests away from running. But to no surprise, they are both outstanding students.
Emily, an eight-time Academic All-MAC honoree, has a 3.94 GPA. She will graduate this spring with a dual degree in marketing and sales while adding minors in digital marketing and sustainability. Madeline holds a 3.90 GPA and has been named Academic All-MAC seven times. She will also graduate in the spring with degrees in economics and political science.
Emily will begin research on transgenic plants this summer as part of her pursuit of a master’s degree in environmental science. She is unsure of her exact career path, but she recognizes that her education will create a wide range of opportunities.
The Vining family, from left: mom, Patti, twins Madeline and Emily, and dad, Dan.
“I think that working in sustainability on the business side or in a business that is more environmentally based is a very big open area that a lot of people haven’t necessarily tapped into career-wise,” Emily said. “There are a lot of different avenues that I’m interested in taking, but I think it helps having the connection of business because it works hand in hand with sustainability.”
Madeline will spend the next year completing a master’s degree in economics before attending law school. She hopes to work in criminal prosecution. In addition to serving on The University’s Board of Trustees, Madeline serves as a senator on the University’s student government and also was selected as a student member of the search committee responsible for hiring University of Toledo Vice President and Director of Athletics Bryan B. Blair.
Madeline said she views these experiences as great learning opportunities for her future law career.
“Hopefully these opportunities will help me express my opinion when I have to talk to a judge during a trial because I have to do that during trustee meetings on the spot,” Madeline said. “All these different service opportunities have helped me meet and connect with people, work on those issues and learn how to run projects while helping people at the same time.”
As Emily and Madeline enter graduate school, they will have the opportunity to represent their hometown Rockets in track and cross country for one final season. For their parents, watching their daughters compete for The University of Toledo is extra special since they are alumni.
“That has been amazing for us,” Patti said. “Just having them so close and us being alumni of the University, it’s like having the school right in your backyard.”
To Grove-McDonough, the Vining twins embody the essence of being a student-athlete at The University of Toledo.
“At the end of the day, I don’t think we could have done the things we’ve done without them,” Grove-McDonough said. “That’s just the fact. To me, they are Toledo. It’s hard to picture Toledo’s cross country program without them.”
