Thursday, November 13, 1997
As a top runner, Kelly Cohn strives hard for perfection on the
track, in the classroomBy Jared Hummel
Daily Bruin Contributor
With the season and a trip to the national championships on the
line in Saturday’s NCAA West Regional Meet, the UCLA women’s cross
country team finds itself playing the role of underdog. Having to
compete against defending national champion, No. 1 Stanford, and a
red-hot Oregon team, the Bruins must overcome the odds if they wish
to extend their season past the weekend. It’s only fitting that the
dark horse team would have a dark horse individual within its ranks
 and nobody more appropriately bears this title than Kelly
Cohn.
Cohn is a redshirt freshman this season who, although
unrecruited out of high school, walked on last year and not only
made UCLA head coach Eric Peterson’s squad, but has firmly
established herself among the team’s top seven runners.
For the better part of her tenure at Stockdale High School in
Bakersfield, Cohn was far more concerned with her grade-point
average than she was about competitive sports.
"I don’t think she even thought of herself as an athlete until
the end of high school," Cohn’s father, David said.
In high school Cohn was not the best runner on the team; in
fact, she was not even the best runner in her house. Her twin
sister, Tracy (who is currently a teammate of Kelly’s at UCLA),
was.
"Kelly was exceptional academically early on and had to really
work on the athletic end of it  she was a really novice track
athlete … Tracy was more of a natural athlete than Kelly was,"
said the Cohns’ high school track coach, David Lonsinger.
Kelly spent much of her athletic career in her sister’s shadow.
Tracy was both a runner and a tennis player in high school, and was
widely regarded as the athlete of the family. However, by the end
of her senior year, Kelly began to establish herself as a
legitimate runner.
Lonsinger contacted Peterson once he found out Cohn had chosen
to attend UCLA in hopes of convincing him that she was worthy of
walking on and running at the very competitive collegiate
level.
"Eric (Peterson), like all coaches, had to make sure (we)
understood, which I already did, how tough the competition is at
UCLA … but I felt that another advantage she had was being the
sister of one of the finest middle-distance runners in the United
States of America in high school in her sister, Tracy," Lonsinger
said.
Lonsinger’s phone call was effective, as Cohn was given the
opportunity to try out. However, Peterson seldom takes unrecruited
athletes onto his team; let alone into his top seven.
"Well I’ve got to be honest, (taking a walk-on) doesn’t happen
very often. We have two other athletes, Melinda George and Kara
Barnhard, who have made the team in the same way," Peterson
said.
With the loss of nationally recognized runner, Kim Mortensen,
due to injury, Peterson challenged the rest of his team to turn the
intensity knob up two notches for the duration of the season in
hopes of winning a bid to the national championships  a feat
which has eluded UCLA cross-country teams for the last nine
seasons.
Cohn was up for the challenge.
She was UCLA’s second-place finisher at both the Oregon
Invitational (21st overall) and at the NCAA Preview Meet (50th
overall). She also raced well at the Pac-10 Championship, finishing
third on the team (28th overall) with a time of 18 minutes, 27
seconds.
"The thing right now that sets Kelly apart is that she’s, by
far, been our most consistent performer on this team," Peterson
said. "That says a lot for her … that says a lot for the kind of
person she is and how much dedication and desire she has to
compete."
When asked who she admires most, Cohn replied, after a moment of
contemplation, "I think I admire my teammates the most … because
we’ve been able to accomplish so much together  we all have
the same goals … if one of us is feeling bad one day, we help
each other out."
When asked if she’s happy about what she has accomplished this
season, she responded, "I haven’t fully accomplished what I’d like
to for the season  I’d like to see the team go to nationals
… I’d like to break 18 minutes."
As far as Kelly Cohn is concerned, her season will not be a
success without a trip to South Carolina for the national
championships or without her breaking that seemingly impenetrable
18-minute barrier. It looks like she will have to do that this
Saturday in Tucson if she wants to accomplish the first goal.
AARON TOUT/Daily Bruin
Freshman Kelly Cohn is one of the top seven runners on the UCLA
women’s cross country team.