The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
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JULY/AUGUST 2022 ■ 45 onship in school history. The Wolfpack had won cross country titles in 1979 and '80, but women's sports were still gov- erned by the Association for Intercolle- giate Athletics for Women at the time. The 2021 cross country title was also the school's first NCAA team champion- ship since coach Jim Valvano's Wolfpack won the men's basketball crown in his- toric fashion in 1983. The openly acknowledged pursuit of a national title was something new for NC State. Henes prefers to keep her athletes focused on the process of getting better; if you're attentive to all the steps along the way, she says, the outcomes will take care of themselves. There was only one step left for the team to climb heading into the 2021 sea- son, and Henes didn't see much point in denying the obvious. "It's really difficult to say, you finished second, you return everybody and the goal isn't going to be to win," she said. "We really do try to focus on the process more than the outcome, but sometimes it's OK to have an outcome goal, too. "If people had said to the women on the 2020 team before the race, you're go- ing to finish second, most of them would have been pretty happy with that at that time. We were ranked fifth, and we had some people going in who weren't 100 percent. "But then going into that next six- month period, all those people were back, and having it be so close, that definitely was their goal. With the leadership we have on this team, their goal is always going to be to perform at the highest level we can with the group we have going into championship season." Part of what made the NCAA title pos- sible was the team's positive chemistry. Tuohy had come to NC State as one of the most celebrated scholastic distance runners in the country and a three-time winner of the Nike Cross Nationals. In Raleigh she found a group of ath- letes with glittering credentials of their own who knew how to make her feel like part of a team rather than an individual star. "We have so much depth that it makes training so much easier," Tuohy said prior to the start of the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, where she won the 5,000-meter title. "We just have a really supportive team dynamic at practice. We lift each other up, support each other, and I think that's why we're all performing so well. It's be- cause of how well we work together." Henes, who was named National Women's Cross Country Coach of the Year, said she was struck by her athletes' selfless attitude — not just toward train- ing and competition but also toward their lives outside of track and field. "This group is just amazing," she said. "They are genuinely happy for each other when they do well. They genuinely want to put it all out there for each other. They talk about that a lot, doing something for something bigger than yourself. "Working hard for their teammates is something that's bigger than themselves. I think they've really bought into that." The impact they made was evident when the team returned home to Raleigh after its victory in Florida. It received a police escort from the airport back to campus and then arrived at a Belltower that was bathed in red light to celebrate the title. Henes has been in charge of the wom- en's cross country program since 2006. A former Wolfpack star herself — she was a cross country All-American and NCAA outdoor champion in the 5,000 — she was thrilled to see the outpouring of sup- port for her athletes. "I think they really felt the love from the fan base and saw that people were re- ally into this and were really supporting the program," Henes said. "I've been here such a long time, and the history part of it certainly meant a lot. I probably have a better grasp of that than they do, how long our fans have waited for another national title. "The support that this team felt from the university community, from our fans and just the Raleigh community in general is huge. It's really cool to live in a place and be part of a university where people are really excited about the Olym- pic sports winning." ■ Led by coach Laurie Henes (center, with team trophy), NC State outpaced BYU for the national title after finishing second behind the Cougars for the 2020 championship. PHOTO COURTESY NC STATE ATHLETICS