The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
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22 ■ THE WOLFPACKER Bush was perhaps the calmest at the out- set of the race thanks to a pep talk from Henes, who reminded her that all she needed to do was run her race like she did at ACCs and regionals, and the team would be fine. The goal for Bush: hang on as long as she could. "But like they all said, it hurt very early on because we went out so fast," she said. A Strong Position Every race is likely to involve some ad- versity. For Tuohy, who was the top freshman finisher in Stillwater, that came via a quick fall early in the race after the 1K mark, when NC State jumped out in the team lead thanks to its strong beginning. "It happened so fast I don't even remem- ber it," Tuohy noted. "I hit the ground, and I was like, 'Get up! Get up!'" Tuohy recovered so quickly that her friends who watched the race afterward had no idea of the slip. "Oddly, I was calm because usually I freak out when things don't go smoothly during races," Tuohy said. "I remember I got up really fast, and the first thing I thought to myself was, 'Don't panic, take your time.' Then I just used the next kilo- meter to make it up." For Bush, her goal to hang around with the lead group was not going quite like she hoped. "I probably hung around until like 2K to 3K and then lost sight," Bush recalled. "Then I remember, someone was scream- ing, 'That was 44th.' And coach told me if I All-American [finish in the top 40], we're going to win." Bush was very centered on that team goal of a national title. NC State's primary competitors going into the meet were de- fending champion BYU, New Mexico — which was the only team to top the Pack in a meet this year — and Colorado. Yet at each kilometer, the real-time scor- ing showed NC State in the lead, similar to a year ago. The Pack's sprint at the begin- ning had particularly given them an edge over BYU, which started slower. Figuring she was in 44th place, Bush started doing some calculations. "I was counting the New Mexico girls," Bush admitted. "Literally, I was just like, 'Where are they at?' Because I knew where I was. I just wanted to know where they were. Towards the end, I think I was with two, and there were two in front of me." Hays confessed to a similar focal point. "There's this picture of Hannah, and I'm like stride for stride," Hays described. "I have no memory of that, because I think I was just staring at the back of a New Mexico girl." At the 5K mark, NC State was in exactly the same place it had been eight months prior, leading the field in the race for the national title. BYU was in second, but the Cougars, after closing the gap between the second- and third-kilometer checkpoints, had fallen further behind since then. This time NC State was in a stronger position to finish faster. Making History The pace snuck up a bit on Hays. She went from being worried about the early pain to being surprised that the race was already halfway over. "I just remember the last 2K, looking around, looking up and seeing the girls in front of me and just trying to finish as hard as I could," Hays said. Her teammates were all taking a simi- lar approach. Chmiel, who had been NC State's leading runner all season, was the first to cross the finish line, placing sixth overall with a time of 19:34.6. "I think we all just locked in, and I was able to see everyone for probably most of the race," Chmiel said. She later added: "I finished just slightly ahead of them. We were in the whole race together. Our spread … was short." Tuohy was next across the line, coming in 15th, less than nine seconds after Chmiel finished. Fewer than five seconds later, Hays finished 22nd, followed 1.4 seconds later by Steelman in 24th. The Pack had four All-Americans across the line. Sprinting toward the finish was Bush. At 19:52.9, she closed strong and crossed the line in 32nd place. In a little-over-18-second spread, the Wolfpack's top five finishers were all in, and all five were All-Americans. "I knew she passed some people in that last 500 because she always does that in that situation," Henes said of Bush. "And she did." By this point, BYU had only two of its runners across the line. New Mexico also had just a pair. When the Cougars' third performer had finished, it was mathemati- cally impossible for BYU to repeat its per- " We're the first team outside of men's basketball at NC State to win an NCAA title. That is pretty cool. That's history. I think just the fact that is going to be something that people remember for so long, that's really cool to think about. " Senior Hannah Steelman Junior Kelsey Chmiel (center) — who won the ACC and NCAA Southeast Regional meets, and led all league runners with a sixth-place finish at Nationals — was named the ACC Women's Cross Country Performer of the Year. PHOTO COURTESY NC STATE ATHLETICS