by Kirsten Olsen, FoxSportsWest.com
As a true freshman at Cal Poly, distance runner Laura Hollander has quickly emerged as one of the elite in cross country at the NCAA DI level.
The Marina High School alum has been breaking course records en route to winning the Big West Conference Championship and earning an invite to the NCAA Division I National Championships in Louisville, Ky. this weekend.
The 18-year old is having more than just a positive impact at the school and on the program with her outstanding performances.
“Since she’s been at Cal Poly, she brings a real positive demeanor, positive energy and is a real even-keeled person who is a real pleasure to be around,” director of track and field/cross country Mark Conover said.
In her first two collegiate meets, Hollander set a course record (16:42) at the UCSB Lagoon Open and placed first in the Pac-12 Preview meet hosted by UCLA (17:02).
She then set her second course record when she won the loaded Wisconsin Adidas Invitational in her first 6k race, finishing in a time of 19:33. She followed that performance up by winning the Big West Conference Cross Country Championships in a time of 19:12.6 while breaking the course record by 45 seconds.
That victory marked four meet title wins in a row.
For these accomplishments, at the end of October, the Huntington Beach native was named USA Track & Field’s Athlete of the Week.
“One wonders if all of this comes as a surprise to Laura, " Conover said. "But surprise is never a word an athlete uses.
"It’s all about desire and preparation. In her case, she’s hoping for these results.”
Hollander’s phenomenal results are a culmination of the effort she put into training after graduation from Marina High School, where she was selected as the Orange County Register's Girls Track and Field athlete of the Year in 2012, finishing second in the CIF Division 1 state cross country championships.
“I think, like any athlete, a lot of it is the preparation and desire," Conover said. "She had a very good summer of training.
"Cross country starts and ends with what you can get done in the summer.
Hollander was in the running for an undefeated season as a freshman until she met the highly decorated Oregon senior Jordan Hasay at the NCAA West Regional cross country championships on last week at Seattle’s Jefferson Park Golf Course.
Hasay outpaced Hollander and finished the race at 19:16 over the 6k course. Hollander, with a time of 19:22, did not finish in the top spot for the first time in the five races of her collegiate career. Both girls broke the course record, set last year by Hasay, by nearly 23 seconds.
But with that finish, Hollander secured a spot in the NCAA Division I Championships to be held in Louisville, Ky., this Saturday.
“She’s just going to go out and see what she can do,” Conover said. “You don’t need to reinvent the wheel, just go out and run and test yourself and see what you can do.”
On Saturday at 12 p.m. (ET), the Cal Poly star will test herself against the nation’s elite runners: Oregon’s Hasay, Iowa State’s Betsy Saina and Wichita State’s Aliphine Tuliamuk-Bolton, who have all run sub 20 over 6k this season.
Hollander will attempt to become the first-ever Cal Poly cross country National champion.