Junior Jill Laurendeau is a Hoyas fan for life. She loves Georgetown and loves representing the Hoyas in competition. Despite a first year spent battling mononucleosis and several stress fractures in her shins, she remained positive and, according to women’s track and field Head Coach Ron Helmer “has become one of the best middle distance runners in the country.”
After red-shirting her first year, Laurendeau has dedicated herself to staying five years at Georgetown. “I want to stay because I’ll be another year older, stronger and more experienced than my competition,” she said.
In only two years of college running, Laurendeau is already a four-time individual All-American in middle distance events, a remarkable feat considering she was a sprint champion from New Hampshire in high school. She used her sprint skills last year to gain All-American status in the indoor distance medley relay. Switching from sprinting to middle distance has been both a mental and physical transition for her. “I’ve gone from not having to think during short races to having to be mentally in the race, by keeping myself positive and keeping myself going,” she said.
This new mindset led to a 14th place finish at this season’s Cross Country National Championship, where she helped Georgetown to an overall third place and earned individual All-American honors. At the Indoor Track and Field Championships this past March, she placed eighth in the mile with a time of 4 minutes, 45.19 seconds, which was less than seven seconds behind the winner, senior Heather Sagen of Liberty University. The fourth event in which she’s earned All-American honors is the outdoor 1,500-meters.
Helmer feels the best from Laurendeau is yet to come. He describes Laurendeau as “really wanting to see how good she can be.”
“A bad race for Jill is a good race for other runners,” Helmer said. He believes that she will reach her full potential if she can become “a little tougher on a more consistent level.”
“You have to realize that Jill is going up against the best competition in the country. Her development is the kind of thing that’s just going to take time,” he said. “Jill is always willing, and always wants to listen to us as coaches, and as long as she reminds herself what she has to do, she’ll have a great career at Georgetown.”
Laurendeau began running competitively at age 13. In high school, at Manchester Central in New Hampshire, Laurendeau played soccer, and also ran cross country and indoor and outdoor track. She owns high school records in the 55, 100, 4×100 relay, 200, 400, 4×400 relay, 800, 4×800 relay and sprint medley relay. She won state titles in the 55, 300, 600, 800 and 1,000. “I chose Georgetown because of its prestige, academics, athletic teams and coaches,” she said. “I love Georgetown and I’m really happy here.”
While running takes up a lot of her time, Laurendeau likes to spend her remaining hours “acting like a regular college student.” Helmer described Jill as a “fun, friendly person who legitimately cares about her friends and teammates.”
This summer, after all the excitement of the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field championships are over, she plans on relaxing. But Laurendeau will not get too comfortable at home. With two years under her belt, she can’t wait for next year. “I’m really excited because we’re going to have a great team with a lot of new talent and a lot of hard workers,” she said.
With Jill Laurendeau taking on more of a leadership role, the future looks very bright.
