Hamlin Shows Senior Dawgs Can Learn New Tricks

By Washington Huskies

October 8^th, 2018

Senior year is the time for a college student-athlete to have it all figured out.

In the classroom, Emily Hamlin feels like a senior, getting 4.0’s over the past two quarters towards her Psychology degree, and making plans to study occupational therapy in the next phase of her education.

However, in the athletics part of her life, Hamlin says “it feels like I’m a freshman again.”

Maurica and Andy Powell were brought in from the University of Oregon to give the program a new direction, and suddenly for Hamlin, everything was new again.

Luckily, it didn’t take long for any apprehensions to turn into a full-on embrace.

“The Powells are awesome, and they’ve fostered this positive environment where everyone is excited to go to practice and everyone is really pumped up about the direction our program is heading,” Hamlin says. “It’s just exciting to be a part of that. I think we have such an eclectic group, we have transfers, and a lot of freshmen, and then returners, and I think the way that we’ve come together is just awesome.”

Hamlin Shows Senior Dawgs Can Learn New Tricks

Hamlin herself is playing a big part in that, as Maurica Powell said last week before the Stanford Invite.

"Emily is a natural leader because she leads by example and also has a good pulse on the personalities of her teammates," said Powell. "She has been incredibly welcoming of her new teammates, both freshmen and the transfers, and the process of having them all together here the last three weeks has brought them together as a group.”

One of the highlights in that team-bonding process for Hamlin was the brunch at the Powells’ new home that Maurica made for the team.

“I think it’s been a whole team effort,” says Hamlin. “Everyone’s been great. Everyone’s been participating in team activities and everyone wants to get to know each other.”

While she might downplay her leadership role, junior Kaitlyn Neal put in perspective what Hamlin has meant to her in their two-plus years as teammates and friends.

“Emily is a rare kind of human: kind, nurturing, compassionate, driven, humble, and talented,” says Neal. “She never boasts about her successes and never shows self-pity when she rarely doesn’t perform to her potential. She’s been the reliable person of support on the team since her freshman year, and as one of my closest friends I will miss her dearly next year. She is truly a wonderful person and an outstanding runner.”

A ten-time Idaho State Champion in cross country and track, the native of Boise has been a reliably solid member of the Husky cross country squad that has reached the NCAA Championships the past three falls, but after a breakthrough spring on the track, Hamlin is positioned to have her best fall yet.

“Absolutely,” says Hamlin on if this can be her strongest fall. “I feel like I’m the fittest I’ve ever been in cross country. Just trusting the process of training through these early meets, and then hopefully we’ll reap the benefits at the end of the season. It was a really good end to last track season, so hoping to swing some of that momentum into cross country.”

The year of new challenges for Hamlin really began in the spring, when she began running the 3,000-meter steeplechase for the first time in her career.

Hamlin claims her early attempts at tackling the signature water pit were not impressive, laughing at the memory.

“The steeple was very nerve wracking at first. I learned how to do the water jump for the first time like two days before my first steeple, and it wasn’t going very well! I kind of just trusted the coaches and was like ‘okay, I can do this, just gotta be tough.’

She improved with every outing, first running a time of 10:38.59 at the Pepsi Team Invitational, then cutting 14 seconds off that to 10:24.04 at the UW-WSU Dual which she won. Her next steeple came at the Pac-12 Championships, taking fifth in 10:20.49, which took her to NCAA West Preliminaries in Sacramento.

By that point, Hamlin looked like she had been jumping water pits since she first learned to walk. She typically made up considerable ground on her competitors every time the water pit came around, nearly clearing the water entirely.

Some of the credit Hamlin thinks goes to her soccer background, “having general athleticism from that, like the jumping and side to side stuff helped a lot,” but it was also a mindset. “I learned not to be afraid of the water jump, and to just go up and be like ‘I own you!’ and go over it.”

Hamlin went into West Prelims seeded 23rd, needing a top-12 finish to move on. Cool temperatures at night made for perfect racing conditions and the pace was fast. Hamlin just “stuck [her] nose in it” and thought that she could at least run a PR. But with a lap to go she was still in the mix.

Knowing every second counted, Hamlin went all out to reach the finish line, and crossed in a stunning 20-second career-best time of 10:00.35, winding up 11th overall and advancing.

“It was the biggest shock crossing the line,” Hamlin remembers. “I think the announcer immediately said ‘Hamlin is going to Eugene!’ and I was overcome with emotion.”

Heading to the NCAA Outdoor Championships for the first time, Hamlin was thrilled to run on the biggest stage yet of her career. She ran the second-best time of her season, 10:14.71, finishing 19th overall to get honorable mention All-America, and some valuable experience.

“I never had been at a track meet of that scale,” she says, “and learning what it feels like and seeing people who are really good warming up, and knowing for next time how to deal with the nerves and how to believe that I belong there, rather than just being kind of in awe of everything. I think experiencing that was awesome cause hopefully this next year I’ll be able to go in and hopefully compete in that final round.”

But for now Hamlin is embracing a new training plan as the Huskies look to make it to Madison, Wisconsin for NCAA Cross Country and be at their best come that race day.

“Stanford was good,” says Hamlin, who finished 20th at the Stanford Invitational to help the Huskies take third at their first competitive race back on Sept. 29. “I had tired legs, but I think we all kind of did what Maurica wanted us to do which was put ourselves in the hurt locker a little bit and then work through the mental processes of racing. Understanding our positive self-talk and what we need to work on.

“We started workouts a lot later in the season, so for the majority of the season we just have to trust the process and trust that we’re going to feel tired. Maurica has told us that day in and day out, you’re not going to feel good, but we’re also focusing on other aspects of racing, like staying positive, and our mental self-talk, and just being gritty.”

As she enters the final year of her undergrad, work ethic and grit are traits that Hamlin has developed from the people around her and that she hopes to pass on.

“Just being surrounded by such an incredible group of people, and seeing the work ethic that everyone has is inspiring.” Balancing the academic and athletic life, “you have to mature pretty quick,” she says, “and I think I’ve gained a lot of valuable life skills in communication with coaches and trainers and teammates, and that’s something that applies to the real world very well.”

It was a former Husky All-American, in fact, that has Hamlin interested in an occupational therapy career. Christine Babcock, the top UW finisher when the Huskies won the NCAA Cross Country title 10 years ago, is currently in the UW O.T. program, and Hamlin reached out to her.

“I was exploring a few different routes like (Physician Assistant), and (Occupational Therapist), and (Physical Therapist), and after shadowing a few places, I decided that O.T. was a really good fit for me, and ideally I would work in pediatrics I think,” says Hamlin.