South freshman Hope Julian.

 

By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

LANDIS — South Rowan’s Hope Julian is wired different.

Different in a good way, but definitely different. She is a freshman runner who looks the part of a carefree 14-year-old, but she speaks like a coach. She articulates about being “dialed in mentally” and reaching for her “competitive energy.”

Julian dialed in often enough and found her competitive energy frequently enough to win lots of races as a freshman and she has the physical ability to match her mental maturity. With good health, she has a chance to be the greatest female distance runner the county has ever seen.

Julian’s favorite high school subject is biology. Her favorite segment of biology is the fascinating study of DNA. She understands that she’s inherited ideal genetic codes. She got the aptitude and the attitude. She has the physical potential to run long and fast. Just as important,  she inherited the desire to put in the work to be great at it.

“Well, it’s definitely a running gamily,” she said cheerfully. “So I got into running very young. It was natural for me and it was wonderful. Running is what I love and so I can’t wait to get to practice every day. Every practice is a chance to do what I love more than anything.”

Julian’s father, Scott, was an excellent runner, while Julian’s mother, Rebekah Frick Julian, is a great candidate for the Salisbury-Rowan Hall of Fame. As an East Rowan Mustang in the 1992-93 school year, she pulled off the triple crown of distance running, winning the 3A cross county state championship in the fall and the 1600 and 3200 meters in the track and field state championships in the spring.

Scott and Rebekah’s sons, Noah and Eli, won six consecutive Rowan County Cross Country Championships between them — three apiece. Noah took charge of the county races as a sophomore. The brothers had one overlapping year as teammates when Noah was a senior and Eli was a freshman. Noah and Eli are both at Liberty University now, with Noah following his dream of becoming a pilot and Eli, who redshirted in cross country as a freshman this fall, training to run the steeplechase for the Liberty track team.

The story goes that when the Julian boys were running as youngsters with the Hurley YMCA Warriors, their little sister didn’t just tag along, she begged to run with them. When Hope was 3, she wanted to get out there with the 8-year-olds.

“We’d go as a family,” Rebekah Julian remembers. “Hope wanted to run. I remember her running a 1000-meter race with the Warriors when she was 4 or 5.”

In middle school, Hope was breaking records that had stood since her mother’s middle school days. She was considered the future of Rowan County cross country.

Now she is the present. She is an obvious choice as the Post’s Rowan County Runner of the Year.

“Hope had a great freshman season,” said her mother, who coaches the South Rowan team. “When she won at the Friday Night Lights Festival early on, she saw that she was capable of winning races as a freshman. She overcame some things. She had injuries and had some growing pains.”

Those growing pains were literal. Hope grew from 5-foot-5 to 5-foot-7 — she’s taller than her mother now — as she transitioned from eighth grade to high school. That’s not the massive growth spurt that many boys experience at that age, but it still had an impact on her knees and hips. She had to make adjustments.

She won two major September meets against statewide competition. Besides winning her division in the Friday Night Lights Festival, she was first out of 219 runners in the Adidas Cross Country Festival at Wake Med Park in Cary. She ran a PR 19:24 in Cary.

“The race in Cary was on a very hot day and on a very hard course, but I was mentally very strong,” Hope said. “Of all the races I ran this year, I’m proudest of that one.”

Her favorite course is McAlpine in Charlotte where she competed in the Wendy’s Invitational and matched her PR in Cary. She rates the toughest courses she battled as Ivey Redmon Park in Kernersville where the Friday Night Lights Festival and the State Championships were held and the course at Salisbury Community Park.

“Ivey Redmon doesn’t look like it would be that hard of a course, but it’s deceptively tough and wears you down,” Hope said. “Salisbury is really challenging because of the hills and  because of the switchbacks.”

Hope’s first Rowan County Championships experience came at Salisbury Community Park. That race is usually held at Dan Nicholas Park, but storm damage led to a change in venue.

She ran 20:09 to win it.

Then she ran 19:30 at Frank Liske Park in Concord to win the South Piedmont Conference Championships over a field that included the strong Lake Norman Charter girls.

The runners returned to Salisbury Community Park for the 3A Midwest Regional. Julian placed second there in an even 20 minutes.

In the recent 3A State Championships, Julian ran 19:40 and placed 14th.

“She was a little disappointed that she didn’t make All-State (top 10), but she had a really solid run,” Rebekah said. “There’s going to be a lot of change next season, with realignment and with eight classifications. It’s going to have a big impact on cross country and every other sport.”

With all of her individual accomplishments as a freshman, Hope had a surprising answer about the best thing that happened this season.

“Being part of a team,” she said. “I’ve never really had that team experience before, and having teammates who supported me and having teammates I could cheer for made running even more fun.”

Hope’s goals for next year include more team success, and she has set the bar high for her own progress.

“My mom’s records are good motivation,” she said. “I think as a sophomore I can run low 18s.”

•••

East Rowan Sadie Featherstone and Carson’s Emily Landaverde spent their senior seasons chasing Julian, but they were state qualifiers and finished great careers on a high note.

•••

Landaverde led Carson’s girls to the county championship.

•••

The top 12 in the Rowan County Championships are deemed All-Rowan County:

South — Hope Julian (1st), Madalynn Gulledge (5th) and Brinley Patterson (12th)

East — Sadie Featherstone (2nd), Morgan Efird (3rd), Iyanna Lynch Berry (9th), Emma Efird (10th).

Carson — Emily Landaverde (4th), Julia Burleson (6th), Kara Crotts (7th), Karis Miller (8th), Caylee Miracco (11th)

Runner of the Year — Julian, South

Coach of the Year — Les-Lee Ihme, Carson

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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