Wednesday, November 4, 1998
Walk-on runner powerful part of team
Persistent training helps Kelly Cohn beat injuries, leads her to
front of the pack
By Donald Morrison
Daily Bruin Contributor
As a freshman, Kelly Cohn decided to walk on to the UCLA women"s
cross country team. She was not recruited or offered scholarships
to any college when she came out of Stockdale High School in
Bakersfield.
Cohn was a virtual unknown in high school. She never won a CIF
title or posed a challenge to the state"s best prep runners. On top
of all that, women"s cross country head coach Eric Peterson was
skeptical about her trying out for the team.
Cohn has defied all odds, however, and quelled all doubts people
had about her, and is making a name for herself at UCLA as the
team"s No. 1 runner.
"I"m always very skeptical about (people wanting to walk on to
the team)," Peterson said. "because I get a lot of inquiries about
people wanting to try out for the team.
"A lot of times, it doesn"t work out. (Cohn) showed up one day
and looked strong. I thought with a lot of work she might be able
to help us."
Cohn, now a redshirt sophomore, has helped the team climb all
the way up to No. 24 in the national polls. With the Western
Regional Championships two weeks away in Fresno, Cohn is ready and
focused to help the team go up against some of the strongest teams
in the nation.
She also wants to help the team to qualify for the NCAA
Championships in late November.
Cohn has finished as UCLA"s top runner in all but two races that
she has competed in this season. She set a personal record time for
the 5,000 meters (3.1 miles) at the Roy Griak Invite in Minnesota
when she placed 13th in 17 minutes, 48 seconds.
The impressive feat for Cohn is not that she is UCLA"s top
runner after walking on, but the fact that she is UCLA"s top runner
after not running for sixth months, from December to June of this
year. Cohn suffered a stress fracture in her hip after the 1997
cross country season and had to sit out the last indoor and outdoor
track and field seasons.
Instead of mentally breaking down because of the frustration of
not running for so long, Cohn stepped back onto the track and
started training again.
"It"s hard to stay focused and not give up, " Cohn said. "I was
very frustrated. Running is what I do and it"s what I love. My
injury helped me realize how important running is to me. It also
helped me realize to do everything that needs to get done so that
you can perform at your best."
Cohn decided that this year she was going to do her best. After
the school year ended, she remained on campus and got a job in
Westwood Village. Cohn trained at UCLA during the summer and was
committed to get back into shape.
When she began training again, she had to do it the hard way and
start off slowly by jogging only one lap at a time on the track
before she could work her way up to longer runs.
"She"s had to persevere in the face of a stress fracture and
other health problems that kept her out running for sixth months
and came right back and didn"t miss a beat," Peterson said.
"Many people, when they come to a roadblock like that, quit.
They give up and stop. That wasn"t the case for her. She hung in
there and went through all the emotions and frustrations."
At her first race on Sept. 12 at UC Irvine, Cohn"s performance
was anything but frustrating. She placed eighth at the invite in
18:13 and led her team to a second-place finish and victory over
No. 13 Northern Arizona.
She continued to improve as the season progressed. The next
week, on Sept. 19, at the Aztec Invite in San Diego, Cohn placed
10th in 18:01 as the Bruins finished third.
Cohn"s most memorable race this season was the Murray Keating
Invite in Maine. Cohn finished fourth in 17:49 as UCLA won the race
by 11 points. It wasn"t Cohn"s individual performance or the race
itself that made it memorable for her.
"It was the whole meet," Cohn said. "We dominated the whole
field and that was the best feeling. To know that your part of it
and all these other runners look up to you because your were put on
a pedestal was just the best feeling in the world."
Cohn has not only improved after every race this season, but
over the course of her career at UCLA. After redshirting and
sitting out her first year, Cohn came back last cross country
season to be UCLA"s No. 3 runner.
She placed 28th at the Pac-10 meet and 26th at the Western
Regional meet, helping UCLA finish fifth at the regional meet. Her
performance last fall was good enough to get voted as the team"s
most improved runner.
"If you put in the work, you"ll definitely get the benefits from
it," Cohn said. "If you want to get something done you have to be
disciplined."
Cohn"s discipline is paying off for her and it reflects on the
whole team, too. Peterson said that this year"s team is the most
competitive team that he"s ever coached, not only during races, but
at practice.
Teammates Julie Ott, Elaine Canchola, Christina Bowen and Kara
Barnard all give Cohn a work out at practice. Peterson notes that
Cohn always steps up to her teammates" challenges at practice.
This, he feels, makes Cohn even better.
"My teammates have had a major impact on my improvement this
cross country season," Cohn said. "Without one of our freshmen
(Canchola) that is running in the top seven, I think I"d still be
running at 18 minutes.
"(Canchola) has the guts to go out hard at the beginning of a
race."
While Cohn is not one of the individual favorites to win or to
compete for the Western Regional, she knows that her performance at
the meet will weigh heavily on the team"s performance.
Cohn could creep up on some runners at the meet and surprise a
lot of other coaches and athletes who might not expect a Bruin to
be among the top runners.
Cohn could be the best walk-on runner in the nation. It could be
a matter of just weeks before the rest of the conference and nation
remembers her name and the UCLA women"s cross country team.
Peterson feels she can do a lot of damage in upcoming weeks.
"(Cohn"s) a very valuable athlete and is tough," Peterson said.
"She"s been training like a madwoman. I"m not sure that I"d want to
be running against her at the end of the year."
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