‘More in the tanks’

Laura Halverson is accustomed to run ahead of the pack.

Last month, Halverson, the most accomplished cross country runner in the history of Freeman High School, graduated from the University of Washington. Next year she starts her senior season as a member of the Husky track team. She’s already started work on a graduate degree in nutrition in summer classes after earning a postgraduate scholarship.

Not bad for someone who thought her collegiate athletic career was over a year ago.

“I imploded the disc between two of the vertebrae in my back,” said Halverson, who carried a 4.0 grade-point average through high school and entered the University of Washington as an academic junior. “I have two bones in my back that are fusing. It takes a long time for them to fuse, which is why I was out for so long.

“I thought I was done. I thought I wasn’t going to be able to come back, and it took a long time to come back.”

It took all of her sophomore year to recover, but Halverson came back to have a solid junior season – thanks in part to an outstanding training staff at the University of Washington, as well as the school’s sports medicine staff.

“They’ve taken really good care of me,” she said. “I see a massage therapist and a chiropractor, and our trainer is incredible.”

So, when the Washington coaches asked her if she was coming back for a senior season on the track team, Halverson said yes.

“I feel like there’s more in the tanks,” she said. “At the end of the year my coach asked if I was coming back. I said ‘Yeah, I think I can run a lot faster.’

“I had pretty high goals, but I’m running better than I thought I would be after my injury. I don’t feel like I reached my full potential, which is why I’m going back.”

Always an athlete, Halverson never set out to be a runner. Her plan was to play basketball for the Scotties, and she turned to running only as a way of rehabilitating herself after a basketball injury during her freshman year.

“It’s a different kind of thing,” she said of her shift away from the hardwood. “Running is really a challenge mentally. Basketball is challenging physically and it’s fun. But I like the individual aspect that you find in running.”

“I will always wonder what would have happened if she hadn’t been hurt her freshman year,” said Halverson’s father, Neil. “She could have been a four-time state champion.”

That athleticism is serving Halverson well at Washington. She holds the school record for the Huskies in the 3,000 meter steeplechase – a race that requires runners to jump over solid barriers and water hazards.

“I think it’s really fun,” Halverson said. “I’m really athletic. I’m not just a runner, I’m an athlete. It plays to my strengths: jumping and hurdling. I like it a lot.”

Halverson entered college with lofty goals – goals that shifted after her back injury.

The training in high school pales in comparison to that in college, she said.

“I’ve always been pretty dedicated,” she said. “I’m lucky; I’m good at running. Having success made me want to train more.

“But our training is so much harder in college. I run probably three times as much as I did in high school. Three times the mileage. I run a couple times a day instead of just once. And weights – I never did weights. Our trainers are awesome. I really appreciate that. I don’t know what it’s like at other universities, but our sports medicine people are first-rate.”