For the first time in eight years, the NCAA Championships will have a runner bearing “Northwestern” on her uniform.
Sophomore Audrey Huth will compete at Indiana State in Terre Haute on Monday as an individual runner, becoming the first NU athlete to step onto the national cross-country stage since the Wildcats qualified as a team in 2002.
“It’s a huge step forward not only for Audrey but for our program just to have representation there,” coach April Likhite said. “It’s a strong indicator of the direction our program is going. Audrey is absolutely a huge part of that.”
Huth qualified thanks to her school-record-setting performance at the NCAA Regional Championships, where the Cats finished 11th out of 27 teams. Her 17th-place individual showing put her in contention for the four individual spots handed to runners whose teams don’t qualify. Her entry depended on Kansas State becoming the fifth team from the Midwest Region to earn a berth, since Kansas State had two runners who finished above Huth.
“In the morning, the different websites that you can follow, estimates of the teams that were going, they all were saying Kansas State was in,” Likhite said. “But I waited until it was coming from the NCAA that she got in.”
Likhite recalls the precise time Huth’s qualification was confirmed: 3:05 p.m.
“I was waiting all day to get a call from my coach,” Huth said. “When I found out, I was ecstatic – I started jumping up and down. Me and my roommates were super excited.”
Huth enters the meet with some of the best times in NU history.
She earned All-Region recognition for the 25 top runners in the Midwest Regional, and her 20:35.8 time in the 6K course topped Rachel Evjen’s previous record time of 20:52.28 set in 2002. Evjen led the team at 67th place in the NCAA Championships.
“I really wasn’t even sure what the record was at the time, actually,” Huth said. “I didn’t know I had broken it until the day after, but it was also very exciting. But definitely my goal was to get myself out and get on that line for Nationals.”
Two weeks earlier, Huth notched the Cats’ best finish in the Big Ten Championships since 2003 with a 20th-place finish. Her 20:52.7 time fell 5.1 seconds short of cracking the top 14, denying her All-Big Ten honors.
“At the end of the day, her goal was to be All-Big Ten,” Likhite said. “She won’t give herself a pat on the back always, so you have to do it for her: ‘Audrey, it was a great race.’ But I think that personality is what drives her to be the best that she can be.”
Likhite said Huth is one of the most determined runners she has worked with as a coach. But given the sacrifices demanded of the sport, she added, successful runners have to find the right balance academically and socially, too.
“She’s able to mess around in the training room – she’s just got a ton of personality,” sophomore teammate Kaley Stroup said, adding that Huth’s unique attire includes tutus. “But when it comes to competing, she has a distinct intensity.”
In Terre Haute, Huth is returning to the course where she set her previous personal-best 6K time of 21:10.2 at Pre-Nationals on Oct. 16.
“We know what time she ran then,” Likhite said. “We know she’s even fitter than she was five weeks ago. So, it really comes down to having the best race of your life on one day.”
As Huth is the only one on her team to compete in the NCAA Championships, she travels to Indiana with her coaches and those teammates who will make the trip just to cheer her on. For Likhite, who left NU in 2001 before returning in 2007, she heads to the meet for the first time in 10 years as a coach. In 2000, Evjen qualified for the competition as an individual.
“I’m ready to go and do this, it’s a great opportunity,” Huth said.
