North Carolina State University Athletics
Hoer's Sensational Freshman Season
11/21/2010 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
Nov. 21, 2010
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH, N.C. - Laura Hoer remembers when she had doubts about whether she wanted to run cross country on the collegiate level.
She wasn't scared of the competition. She was just afraid it wouldn't be as much fun as being on the team at Asheville's T.C. Roberson High School, where she won the 2009 state 4-A individual cross country championship and several other state track titles.
She had seen some previous teammates go to college and not give their best effort. She would have rather given up the sport than compete like that.
"I thought it might be too hard, that it wouldn't be any fun," Hoer said. "I was completely wrong, to say the least. I am so happy with my decision to come here."
Ditto the NC State women's cross country team.
As a true freshman, Hoer has been spectacular, winning individual titles in four of the team's five races, including the ACC championship and the NCAA Southeast Regional championship. Monday, she will go for the big prize, when she and her Wolfpack teammates compete in the NCAA Championships in Terre Haute, Ind. The race is set to begin at 12:08 p.m. EST.
If she continues her winning streak, she would be the second Wolfpack women's cross country runner to win the national title, matching the feat of Suzie Tuffey in 1985. To be honest, Hoer isn't thinking in those terms. She wants to do well, but she knows that there will be a loaded field of accomplished competitors lining up against her.
"I want to do really well, honestly, but this is the national championship, the best runners in the country," Hoer said. "I don't want to put too much pressure on myself. I want to perform to the best of my ability.
"There'll be a lot of big names around."
What she is just beginning to realize, of course, is that one of those big names is "Laura Hoer," who debuted with a 30-second win in the season-opening Wolfpack Invitational and followed up with a surprising win at the Roy Griak Invitational in Minneapolis.
The NCAA Pre-Nationals, held on the same course as Monday's championship, is the only race this year Hoer did not win. She finished fourth, just five seconds behind winner Lucy Van Dalen of Stony Brook. She has gotten stronger as the leaves started to fall, becoming the third NC State freshman in the last 12 years to win the ACC title and just the second to ever win an NCAA regional championship.
Her four victories this season adds her to an exclusive list of Wolfpack runners who have won at least that many races in a single season: Betty Springs (school-record six, 1983), Tuffey (5, 1985), Julie Shea (4, 1980), Bob Henes (4, 1990) and Laura Rhodes (4, 1997).
For some who follow college cross country, Hoer's success seems to have come from nowhere, because she did not compete in some of the national postseason meets after winning the NCHSAA 4-A title last fall.
"It's not as if she didn't run fast in high school," women's cross country coach and former NCAA track and field champion and cross country All-American Laurie Henes said. "She ran a 9:39 3,000 meters, which is very high on the national list, and she almost won at the Penn Relays while still in high school.
"I don't think her accomplishments this year are as from out of nowhere as some people are making it out. Still, for any American-born, true freshman to win the ACC Championship and the Southeast Regional is a major accomplishment, no matter how fast you ran in high school."
Henes has been impressed with Hoer's easy, long stride and her mental demeanor. As a freshman, Hoer still gets a little nervous before big meets, but it's not because she's scared of the competition.
"She loves to race and at this level, that will take you a long way," Henes said. "She knows she's fast and she just wants to get out and race."
But running isn't Hoer's only interest in life. The daughter of an Arden, N.C., internist, Hoer hopes to follow her father's steps into the medical profession, perhaps as a general practitioner or a physical therapist. For now, she's taking a heavy course load in human biology, balancing her training schedule with classes in chemistry, biology, calculus and environmental ethics.
She came to Raleigh to run cross country, prepare for medical school and be near her older sister Kim, who is a senior at NC State.
"I was a successful high school student and I'd like to translate that to college too," Hoer said. "I take my academics very seriously. I'm going to school and running now, but that's not what I want to do for the rest of my life.
"I want to get a job and work hard."
For now, though, winning races will do.
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
