Monnett driven to succeed for DePauw

Saturday, April 30, 2016
Claudia Monnett set the DePauw school record in the 3K in a meet last week.

Some athletes mature earlier than their classmates at a young age, and as a result they use that physical advantage to succeed in sports during adolescence until others catch up with them physically.

DePauw junior distance runner Claudia Monnett of Cloverdale is an exception to that rule, and would be considered as an ultimate late-bloomer in terms of her athletic career.

She began running track in the sixth grade at Cloverdale Middle School, and makes no secret about her ability at that time.

"I was really, really bad," she recalls. "I ran a four-minute 800 [two laps], which is terrible."

Part of her problems may have been a result of her pre-meet diet regimen, one which Tiger head coach Kori Stoffregen does not recommend to anyone.

"My grandma used to feed me two McDonald's apple pies before every meet," Monnett recalled with a laugh. "That was not helping."

Despite her shortcomings, Monnett stuck with her running career.

"I did pretty badly throughout middle school," said Monnett, easily her own biggest critic. "I got slowly better throughout high school until I was somewhat decent my senior year. I've just gotten a lot better progressively as college has gone on."

Fast forward to today, where Monnett has established herself as one of the top runners among all Division III schools.

Last week, she won the 3,000-meter run at the Rose-Hulman Twilight Meet in a school-record time of 10:12.17 to propel her to North Coast Athletic Conference Women's Distance Athlete of the Week honors, beating the previous record by 15 seconds.

Predictably, she did not impress herself with that accomplishment.

"We only run that race once a year, because it's not really an outdoor race, so it's probably the worst record that we have," Monnett said, not missing a chance to take a shot at herself.

Her coach disagrees with that assessment.

"It's actually a very good record," said coach Stoffregen, sitting nearby and hearing Monnett's responses to questions.

"That's just kind of Claudia," he said later. "She's very modest about her abilities, and really doesn't want to talk too much about it. Deep down inside, she's very proud."

Stoffregen wishes every runner in his program had Monnett's desire to succeed.

"She is very competitive," he said. "When it's time to race, she wants to beat people. That's what makes her good. I'm really happy with what she has accomplished, and she has a lot of things left to do."

Claudia Monnett competed in the NCAA Division III cross country championships in November.

Monnett has had more success to date in cross country than track, having qualified for the Division III championships last fall and finishing 102nd among the 280 student-athletes competing, even though it's not her favorite sport.

"I like racing on the track better," she said. "It's really clear how much you have left to go. In cross country, I think I'm close to being done, but I don't really know."

Monnett admits there was not a huge parade of recruiters knocking on her door for her services, and her decision was one made logically based upon logical needs of a teen-ager.

"It was between here and Indiana, and I chose here because I could have a car on campus and I liked it better," she said. "I felt it was a little more prestigious. I actually felt I didn't want to come here because I knew I was going to have to run if I came, and I didn't want to.

"I did any way, and I'm really glad that I did."

The answer to the reason behind her improvement is a simple one.

"Running more helped a lot," she said. "Before, I wasn't running a lot and I wasn't feeling super-competitive.

"In my freshman year of college, I started thinking I could run fast and started pushing myself to do it," Monnett continued. "A lot of being good at running is having the confidence that you can do it; if you are not confident in your race, you're going to start dropping back."

Stoffregen said that Monnett's background, being from a small school and with not an excessive amount of running in her history, makes her an ideal fit for his program.

"I've been watching her all through high school, and I knew from watching her that she would be very, very good," he said. "She had nobody who could run with her or to train with her, but as soon as she got to college she had coaches to work with and kids to run with.

"From a coaching standpoint, I like that," Stoffregen said. "I'd rather have kids come from situation where they didn't do a lot in high school because they often have more left in the tank. You see a lot of kids who run a tremendous amount in high school who really struggle health-wise at the collegiate level."

Monnett, who was named to the school's "Tiger Pride Honor Roll" last fall for having a GPA higher than 3.4, is studying a double major in computer science and political science.

"I would like to write for a political analysis website," she said, noting that fivethirtyeight.com (which does data analysis of political campaigns) would be an ideal type of place to work. "I would like to marry the two majors into some kind of career."

When she's not studying or running, Monnett is busy with Alpha Chi Omega sorority activities and reading political science blogs. She also works for DePauw's Community Technology Enhancement Program, which refurbishes computers and provides them to needy community members.

Monnett's spring season has been slowed by an injury suffered at the cross country nationals, which sidelined her for two months, coupled with a bout earlier this year with mononucleosis.

She doesn't foresee a trip to the track nationals this spring, but still has lofty goals.

"I think I will probably get a personal record in the 5K," she said. "I hope to make it back to nationals in cross country, and maybe be an All-American. I would like to make it to nationals in track as well next year."

Stoffregen feels Monnett is about a month behind where he hoped she would be, but has performed better than expected during this outdoor season.

"She ran well in the 3K last weekend, and she is further along than I thought she might be," he said. "She says track nationals are not in the cards for this year, but I'm not counting her out. Her best 5K time is 18:27, and I think she could run 17:30."

Monnett traveled to Hillsdale College in Michigan on Thursday evening to compete in the Gina Relays, finishing 29th in the 5,000-meter run in 17:55.65.

Even though she hasn't yet reached Stoffregen's estimated goal, the Tiger coach thinks she will do whatever it takes to get there.

"She's really smart, and very driven," he said. "Anything that she sets her mind to, she's going to be able to do.

"Sometimes you just have to have a door opened for you," Stoffregen added. "She has not only gone through that door, but she has kicked it down. It's been really fun to see how good she's gotten."

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