Athlete close up: cross country Junior Hannah Naquin

Although she never dreamed of being a runner, Hannah Naquin has established herself as an integral member of Nicholls cross country and track.

From her freshman to junior year, Naquin’s name can be found mentioned in numerous articles revealing her impressive race times. Most recently, Naquin paced the Colonels at the LSU Invitational where she finished 23 out of 50 runners with a 5K time of 19:58.

Now into her third cross country season with the Colonels as a junior, Naquin leads her team with the top times at each of their meets thus far. What most people don’t know about Naquin is she didn’t choose track; it was chosen for her.

“I never expected to go to college for track,” Naquin said. “I was almost 99% sure that I would go to college for volleyball.”

Naquin, native of Folsom, Louisiana, attended Archbishop Hannan High School where her older brother, Luke, also attended and was a great track runner. When the coach heard Hannah was a “Naquin” and she was related to Luke, he knew he had to have her on the track team.

“He got me on the track one day and he just told me to run,” Naquin said. “After he saw me run, he said I had to do track and that I had no choice.”

While running in high school, Naquin never wanted to run long distance. She never ran in a cross-country meet until she came to Nicholls. Naquin was originally recruited for hurdles after earning state medals in the event during high school. Now, cross-country running is Naquin’s strength.

“I was in the Nicholls cafeteria eating and my coach told me I was going to run cross country that same weekend,” Naquin said. “I started running the next day with the team and that’s when it all started.”

Since being thrown into running during her high school years, Naquin has learned about the mental and physical demands of the sport, as well as what it means to compete as an individual and still be part of a team.

“A lot of people think track is such an individual sport, and it is, to an extent,” Naquin said. “The team matters so much. Last year, so many of us did so well individually, but we made it a team thing and that made other people want to do the same and to do really well.”

Naquin notes that the work she puts in, as an individual, is what makes track an individual sport. Having to do many of her practice runs on her own, Naquin must mentally be prepared for each mile and figure out her pace.

“The hardest thing to learn is how to adjust your pace and make yourself stick to it,” Naquin said. “If you stick to your own strategy, you’ll do your best; you can’t make somebody else change your pace for you.”

Naquin has no off-season at Nicholls as she transitions from cross-country right into track season.

“A lot of people don’t realize that we have basically a whole season of indoor track,” Naquin said. “If we ever had a break, it would be then, but we don’t. We go straight from cross country to indoor track, then straight to outdoor track.”

Since she competes in different races and events between cross country and track season, Naquin must quickly change her focus from long distance runs around campus and through fields to the confines of speed work on a track.

“The cross country goal is running as far as you can for as long as you can. When you get back on the track its so different,” Naquin said. “It takes a few weeks to shift from stamina to speed.”

Naquin attributes her success in cross country and track to a balance of pressure placed on her by Head Coach Heather Van Norman, and the expectations she sets for herself. Knowing what she is capable of doing based on her practices and the trust of her coach allows Naquin to proceed through the pressures of running with confidence.

“I’d rather just surprise people and have people see in an article that I did well. I want to let my races speak for me,” Naquin said. “I don’t want to talk about anything, I just want to race.”