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Like her marital status and her name — the former Valerie Kelly, she married Dan Hubbard in August.
But one thing that hasn’t changed is that the former Brookwood High School standout will be competing at the NCAA Division II meet for the fourth straight year as a member of the UW-Parkside women’s cross country team.
“The thing about Val is that she is still pretty much the same person she was when she got here,” said coach Mike
De Witt, whose team will compete at the Division II national meet Saturday in Jolin, Mo. “She is just a very quietly determined person who gives all she has got to do a good job with her running and studies and everything she does.”
That determination was evident to De Witt from the moment Hubbard came out for his team.
“When she came in, she didn’t have a lot of accolades,” De Witt said. “She had been part of a small school, state championship team, but really didn’t stand out.
“But as a freshman, she worked hard and worked her way up to be our No. 7 runner.”
But for all the strides Hubbard made in her freshman cross country season at Parkside, it was the strides she made during her first track season with the Rangers that helped push Hubbard to a new level.
“The biggest factor (in Hubbard’s development as a distance runner) came during her freshman track season,”
De Witt said. “During that track season, we let her run a couple of 5s (5,000 meters) early, but then we held out of the disances.
“What we did then was just get her ready for a 5,000 in the last meet of the year, and she ran it a minute faster (than at the beginning of the season).
“I think that kind of turned on a light for her.”
But before he could flip that switch, De Witt had to change Hubbard’s feelings about running track.
“I’m a distance runner, the longer I run, the better I do,” Hubbard said. “In high school, the longest race was two miles. But in college, you have the 5k and 10k events, so that made it better.
“I also learned that I had to learn like track to make me a better runner overall. It would help me in the long run for cross country the next year. That was obvious the next year. The key was just to stay patient.”
That next year, her sophomore season, saw Hubbard go from the Rangers’ No. 6 runner to the their second finisher at the Division II national cross country meet. And in the spring, she qualified for nationals in track in the 10,000 meters.
“Qualifying for nationals in track was pretty neat,” Hubbard said. “I never competed in the state meet in high school, so that was pretty special.”
As a junior, Hubbard continued to make strides, finishing as Parkside’s top finisher at the national cross country meet (23rd) and again qualifying for nationals in the 10,000 meters.
Although slowed in part by some nagging injuries this season, Hubbard has continued to help set the pace for her team and teammates. She finished fifth at the Great Lakes Valley Conference championship to help the Rangers win their fourth straight league title and seventh in eight years.
She also earned all-region honors with a 14th-place finish last weekend as Parkside qualified for the national meet with a third-place finish at the Division II Great Lakes Regional.
As one of three seniors on the Parkside squad, Hubbard has also taken on the role of team leader, helping her younger teammates both on and off the running path.
“We have a lot of freshmen and underclassmen, so I have a pretty important leadership role now,” she said. “I just try to keep them on the right path through school and by showing what they can acheive if the stay with the (cross country and track) progam.”
And it’s not all that hard for Hubbard to relate to some of her newer teammates, which includes a trio of former Brookwood runners in freshmen Jennie Kindt and Angie Petersen on the women’s team and Dustin Baldwin on the men’s squad.
As for how she has mixed her running and her relationship with her new husband, Hubbard said that hasn’t changed much, either.
“My husband has been very supportive,” she said. “We’ve known each other since seventh grade and he ran some in high school and junior high, so he understands how important it is to me.”
BACK TO NATIONALS: Carleton College senior Jon Nowinski (Black River Falls) will close his college cross country team with a fourth trip to the NCAA Division III men’s national meet at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn.
The Carleton men qualified as one of 16 at-large team qualifiers.
Nowinski finished 65th at last year’s national meet.
STRANGSTALIEN LEADS WINONA STATE GOLFERS TO NSIC TITLE: Sophomore Brady Strangstalien (Westby High School) won medalist honors for the second straight year as the Winona State men’s golf team repeated as champions of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Athletic Conference last month.
Strangstalien, who also repeated as NSIC golfer of the year, shot a two-round total of 140 to pace the Warriors, who have a strong Coulee Region contingent on their squad.
Junior John Anderson (Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau) was second at the NSIC meet with a 144 total, while senior Kevin Loeffler (Caledonia) was third at 147 and senior Ross Whilhelm (Holmen) was tied for 13th at 153.
Strangstalein, Anderson and Loeffler were all named first team NSIC.
Freshman Keegan Drugan (Holmen) is also a member of the WSU squad.
SIBIK HONORED: Saint Mary’s University (Winona, Minn.) freshman forward Amy Sibik was an honorable mention selection to the All-Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference women’s soccer team.
Sibik, an Onalaska High School graduate, led the Cardinals (10-7-1) with 12 goals and finished tied for the team lead with 26 points.
