This is the latest installment in the FloXC Countdown. For the full list of the top teams and individuals, click here. Today, the #4 women's team, the NC State Wolfpack. 

N.C. State coach Laurie Henes offers a succinct explanation of her team’s 13th-place finish at last year’s NCAA Championships.

“It wasn’t disastrous by any means, but it certainly wasn’t what they wanted,” Henes said. 

This season, they have another chance to get what they want. The Wolfpack only lost one of their top seven from 2018 and bring back one of the best runners in the nation. 

The team is led by Henes’ daughter, Elly, who placed 16th at the NCAA Championships in Madison. Henes carried that success into indoors when she qualified for both the 3000m and the 5000m at the NCAA Championships. But there was a hiccup outdoors. A lingering illness led to the decision to redshirt the season. By June, Henes was back to racing. She set personal bests in the 1500m (4:14.32) and 5000m (15:31.97), setting her up well for this fall. 

“She wants to be a factor in every NCAA final she’s in,” Laurie Henes said. 

While she will still have eligibility left on the track, this marks the final season for Laurie to coach her daughter on the cross country course. The dual role of parent and coach is something Laurie was reluctant to do. In high school, Laurie wasn’t involved in Elly’s training; she didn’t even know the workouts her daughter was running. When the recruitment process began, Elly took visits to other schools before ultimately deciding on NC State. As the results of the past three years indicate, they’ve made it work. 

For many parents, senior year is a trying time, bordering on stressful, as their child transitions out of the structure of college.

“Honestly I think I’m opposite of a typical parent on that one, instead of (asking), ‘What are you going to do?’ I’m almost on the other side saying, ‘Don’t worry about it, focus on what you’re doing right now and the rest will work itself out,’” Henes said. “I really believe people get way too caught up in that the last years of college. I’m telling her just have a senior year, there's always that pressure.”

Leadership will be a point of emphasis for Elly Henes this season. She’s one of only three seniors on the roster. 

If there was any consolation to last year’s disappointment, it was that the shortcomings were easily diagnosed by Laurie Henes: The tough races came from the women who weren’t experienced at NCAA Championships. 

This year, Henes expects big jumps from the underclassmen. Heather Holt (148th) and Nevada Mareno (172nd) were NC State’s fourth and fifth runners in their first run at the NCAA Championships. 

Dominique Clairmonte, now a redshirt junior, showed her experience with a solid 62nd-place finish. Bethlehem Taye is also expected to be back for this season. Taye didn’t race in 2018 but placed 54th in 2017. Ryen Frazier returns for her redshirt senior year after missing 2018. The four-time national champion in high school suffered a sacral fracture last year when she fell on a run, but Henes believes she can be a major factor in this year’s team. 

But to get on the podium it seems likely that they will also need a big contribution from someone new to the NCAA. 

Freshman Kelsey Chmiel joined the team this fall after a phenomenal prep career at Saratoga Springs High School in New York. Chmiel was second at Nike Cross Nationals last fall and runner-up in the 5000m at New Balance Outdoor Nationals this June. At NXN, only all-everything Katelyn Tuohy was able to beat her.  

There were valuable lessons learned in racing against Tuohy, though. Henes believes it taught Chmiel restraint in racing, and that you can run a good racing without hammering from the gun. Those will be especially useful points as Chmiel enters her first year in college. 

“There's nothing like NCAA cross. It’s overwhelming, everybody is good,” Henes said.

Last year’s race was the first time since 2014 that NC State finished outside the top 10. For 2019, their mixture of youth and experience could put them back on the podium. 

“We’ve gotten to a position the last few years where the expectations are high because we’ve done well and that’s a great thing, but it’s never easy,” Henes said.