‘She’s always been a joy’: Gabby Cossio has made her mark at Miami University

As a walk-on for the Miami University Track and Field team during her first year at Miami University, Gabby Cossio took two third-place medals in team races at the Mid-American Conference Indoor Championships. During her sophomore year, she was out for almost the whole season with quadriceps tears in both legs.

She returned toward the end of the season, though, and posted a personal record 1:03.74 time in 400 hurdles and came in second place for the 4x400 relay at the MAC Outdoor Championships.

Her junior season, she was injured again. She used that year to rebuild her body and balance her mind.

"Being injured was a blessing in disguise,” Cossio said. “It let me slow down and realign my focus. It helped remind me that my value doesn't come from my sport and my times on the track. I focused on my faith and put my trust in God and started to take the pressure off of myself."

After she was cleared to compete, Cossio said track became even more enjoyable. Now in her senior year, Cossio is soaking it all in before she moves to Chicago for a job she has lined up in finance, which is her major at Miami.

“I've really just been using senior year I think to soak in every single memory,” Cossio said. “I love the sport. I love running. But even more, I just love my team. I love being able to do really hard workouts with my team and afterwards just lay on the floor with the girls.”

Cossio has had two siblings graduate from college already. Her sister Anna ran track at Washington University in St. Louis, and her brother Luis also ran track at Notre Dame University.

“There's a lot of joy in seeing her graduate,” Luis Cossio, Gabby’s father, said. “But there is definitely a bit of sorrow in that. I think most parents who have gone to college know that that period of time is very, very special. And oftentimes you don't want to see it end.”

Before this season, Cossio was finally put on scholarship.

“Helen and I were really happy,” Luis Cossio said. “Because she had been working hard and not always having the success she wanted, but she continued relentlessly towards making herself better, and the coaches, to their great credit, acknowledged that.”

Cossio has had great times at Miami. She says she loves being on the track team because it’s like one huge family.

“They become your brothers and sisters,” Cossio said. “At the end of the day you have close to 100 other people who are always supporting you.”

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According to Cossio’s parents, she was always a good kid.

“Gabby has always been a joy,” Helen Cossio, her mother, said. “She's a really happy, positive, bright person. We’re really proud of the way she’s handled her academic career along with her athletic career. She's always managed to do it in a positive way. And we feel like she's always managed to be a strong leader.”

Cossio is the vice president of Miami University Women in Finance and a member of Athletes in Action, an organization of Christian athletes on campus. She says what she’ll miss most as she leaves college is the camaraderie.

“I don't think there's anything better than going through a really, really intense practice, or a really, really hard 400 workout with your best friends pushing your bodies to the limit and pushing each other,” Cossio said. “And then just afterwards all going out to eat or going on to get smoothies or even just laying on the floor.”

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schmelj2@miamioh.edu