How many foreigners on NC State team?

They currently have four foreigners, two who ran today and one of whom scored (Gapes #1 runner in 5th, Templier #7 runner was 155th). I believe they signed another foreigner for next year's team.

BYU has none, including eight from Utah alone.

But they’re BYU…. they don’t count. plus they didn’t win this year.

Signed collectively: Let’s Run Clowns

They are an example of why people need to be clear about what they are complaining about. Are you mad about foreigners completely, or are you mad about 25 year old semi-pro runners coming over as freshmen?

NC State didn't buy any ready made 25 year old semi-pro's. They don't have any runners from countries with doping issues. What is the issue with them?

Zero, Zlich, Nada

I think there is a big difference between a foreign athlete reaching out to the program because they want to go there vs a program hiring a company to go find some runners to sign to a huge NIL deal.

4

New Zealand
France
Spain
Canada

Just because they are not black it doesn’t mean they aren’t foreigners 😉

C'mon everyone knows Tuohy carried them to victory yesterday. Did you see on the broadcast who all the girls immediately ran up to and hugged? I think I heard them chant "Touhy" right before the start while in a circle with hands in.

NZL: Gapes came in as an 18-year old with PR's of 4:26 (1500) & 9:34 (3k). DNC in 2022, 73rd NCAA in 2023, 8th in 2024, 5th in 2025. Turns 22 this week.

FRA: Templier started at Portland in 2023 as an 18-year old with PRs of 4:23 & 9:20. Finished 19th & 11th in the West region and had PR's of 8:56/16:10 before transferring to NC State this summer. Turns 21 in April.

ESP: Martinez ran 9:14 3k and 6:30 2k steeple as a 16-year old in 2022. Came to NC State fall 2024, but apparently did not race at all in Spain or US in 2024 or track 2025. Ran NC State's three "local" (non-flight) meets this fall, with a 21:39 6k best.

CAN: Dow started this fall as 18-year old with PR's of 4:18 (from 2023) and 9:54, and has not yet raced in college.

(They also have Phoebe Anderson from the UK who grad-transferred from Columbia this year but did not have XC eligibility.)

So all those women (other than Anderson, who was 19 when she started at Columbia) started college in the U.S. at age 18. None had "all-American" level, much less pro-level, marks before college. Two came from English-speaking countries with marks that would make them good but not great US recruits - one has turned into superstar over three years, one has been on campus three months. One transferred after two years at a lower-level D1 program with results that suggest that she could contribute but was not a certain all-American. Martinez is the real outlier - no prior schooling in an English-speaking country, and prior results like a phenom who wins nationals as a Fr/So and then tails off later in HS.

I have zero knowledge of this but they all profile like people who reached out to NC State and said "I want to run for you." I really doubt Laurie Henes came home from her first NCAA title, with Tuohy, Chmiel, and Bush having multiple years of eligibility remaining, and said "let me cold-call a girl in New Zealand who would rank 47th in the mile in the US." Although if she did - brilliant! That call turned into a two-time NCAA top 10 finisher.

This was the first of the NC State championships with an international athlete scoring for them (Gapes was sixth runner in 2023.) It's also the first without a transfer earning all-America honors (Hayes & Steelman in 2021, Mareno in 2022, and Tyynismaa in 2023, though Mareno had been at NC State for five years after a year at Stanford.) It's the first championship with no grad/Covid 5th-6th year athletes - none of the scorers were over 21 and two are teenagers.

They showed a lot but not that.

Ahhh so now the gripe isn’t foreign athletes but foreign athletes from non-English speaking countries. Totally makes sense.

Stop with the age thing.

I challenge any top team to swap their top 18/19 year old freshman with the Athlete Special or Ari Klau

Quality analysis. It helps NC State to have a 23 year old American, Brooke rauber, a protégé of jack Daniels (RIP) strongly supporting the team as a top 5 scorer in nearly every race (and part of top 7 at nationals). This builds amazing resilience. Then, they have a sub 4:10 1500 runner, Kate Putnam, who cannot crack the top 7, but is an exceptional training partner and quality performer at many xc races this year. This gives nc state's program spectacular advantage over other American athlete focused programs. Unknown to most, but nc state "stole" a top female runner from furman, ironically, another coach who is vocal about "buying" a championship through international agents.

Nc state has had a dream roster for years now. They keep landing exceptional american/international athletes or transfers. The train keeps going. I think more needs to be written about the positive athlete focused program that keeps leading so many taking less scholarship to run for nc state under coach henes. No way they are all getting 100 percent scholarships.

Let’s be honest they go all in for cross country a secondary sport then get pounced in track. They are a cross country team. Also, long term they’re physically dead at the next level.

I don't have any gripes - I have not posted on this topic in this or any other thread.

- Some people have complained about international athletes with respect to age and/or already being at a professional level. The international runners on NC State's women's team entered college at the same age as the American runners, and by far their athlete closest to being able to run professionally coming in was Englehart. The second-best incoming recruit on the roster was either Michalek or Napolean.

- A slightly different complaint is that some schools are simply buying success, either through already highly developed international athletes or by poaching the best experienced collegiate athletes as transfers. (I don't know how you draw the line between "poaching" and "athlete wanted to go to a better program.") NC State's 7th runner at NCAA is only one of the 10 women who ran at NCAA, regional, or ACC who did not enter NC State as an 18-year old freshman. Aside from that recent transfer, their 5th runner, who I think was the #2 US true freshman in the meet, is the only one of the 10 you could arguably say was already as good when she arrived as she is now (since she's only been in college for three months and five races, the last four of which were a distance she'd never run before.)

- Another poster noted that they saw a difference between foreign athletes that reach out to a program and schools hiring a company to bring in high level runners. I pointed out that two of the four foreign runners were from English speaking countries without a strong university athletic system, so it makes sense to think they would look to the U.S., and they were at a level it was more likely they contacted schools rather than being represented by a placement agent. A third was a transfer after two years at another school (that was 2500 miles further from her home) and likely followed the same process as other transfers. I pointed out Martinez as the outlier, as her not having obviously attended school in English meant those assumptions didn't apply. But I seriously doubt NC State, coming off three straight NCAA titles, was paying a agency to find a Spanish high schooler who peaked two years earlier. (I don't know anything about any of these women other than what you can find on TFRRS and the WA database.)

I haven't bothered to look up details, but I'm pretty sure you could make all these points, probably even more strongly, about BYU. (You wouldn't even have to explain their international runners, since they don't have any. But with Hutchins out for the season, only Hedengren rates as a true superstar recruit.)

They couldn't win with anyone actually from north carolina?

North Carolina State womens team champions
Scorers:
5th Hannah Gapes
NC State (JR)
18:51.3 - New Zealand
6
Grace Hartman
NC State (JR)
18:52.6 - Ohio
29
Bethany Michalak
NC State (SO)
19:14.9 - Colorado
40
Angelina Napoleon
NC State (SO)
19:22.7 - New York
51
Sadie Engelhardt
NC State (FR)
19:32.4 - California
--------------------------------
117
Brooke Rauber
NC State (SR)
20:02.3 - New York
155
Fleur Templier
NC State (JR)
20:16.2 - France

From what I have seen the top NC HS runners often choose UNC or an out of state school. Bell to Georgetown, Dalton to ND, Shaffer to UNC, Kermes to UVA even Alder went to BYU (w family). cue the NC St is not a good school comments

lol