Luke Napieer/Centre College Photo
Centre College was actually her school of choice but her love for basketball led Lauren Foutch to go to Union College where basketball would be her primary sport and she would participate in track and field as a secondary sport.
“Once I started throwing collegiately, I liked track more than basketball. I got here (to Centre) and just stuck with track and have never looked back,” said Foutch.
She transferred to Centre after her freshman season after her track coach at Union, Jacob Carter, decided to return to his alma mater — he was the 2012 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Field Athlete of the Year — to join coach Lisa Owens’ staff.
Carter set several school records at Centre and helped the Colonels win conference titles his last two years.
“I was not a very good thrower when I first went to Union. I was always a multipart athlete growing up. I played softball my freshman year and did not like it. I told my mom I thought I would throw the big ball (shot put) and she didn’t even know what I was talking about,” Foutch said. “My first year I just did discus. I went from throwing 46 feet to 103 feet by the end of the year.”
She continued to improve her junior year and then COVID wiped out her senior season at Somerset High School. She emailed several college track coaches and Carter not only responded but impressed her with his enthusiasm.
“He told me we would get to a point where I could go to nationals and win conference titles,” Foutch said. “Honestly I don’t know what he saw in me. I didn’t even really see myself as a collegiate thrower. I played basketball since fourth grade and knew I could play basketball in college. I never thought I could make it in track but his confidence gave me a love for track.”
She’s turned that confidence into production. She was second in the hammer and third in both the shot put and discus at the Southern Athletic Association Championships a year ago.
At the Centre Twilight, the junior had the best meet of her track career. She won the shot put (40 feet, 7 inches), discus (136-3) and hammer (146-4). She has the best conference mark in all three events and ranks in the top 25 of Division III in the discus after breaking the previous school record set in 2012 by Emily Niehaus.
Last week at the Rick Erdmann Twilight at Eastern Kentucky University, Foutch finished first in the shot put (40-6), fourth in the discus (125-2) and second in the hammer with a new personal best mark of 156-6.
She never anticipated reaching the distance she has in the discus but also believes if she can clean up a few technique details she can throw between 140 and 150 feet.
“I think I have a lot more left in the tank in all three events. My hammer was not clicking. I am thankful I won but I can do a lot more,” she said after the Centre Twilight. “Same with the shot put and doing more. I am a spinner where a lot just glide. It just has not clicked until a few weeks ago at the Cumberlands, so I know I can do more.”
Now her “100 percent goal” is to win all three events at the conference championship hosted by Centre College this weekend.
“I never thought any of this would ever happen. It has been quite a ride to say the least,” she said.
Academically, Centre has been “different” from Union College where she would just “look over notes, take the exam and pass” without a great deal of stress.
“It’s not like that here. Balancing academic life and track life, especially during the spring, is difficult,” Foutch said. “Academic life is fun but hard. Learning how to manage my time, though, has really helped me.”
Foutch is a behavioral neuroscience major who planned to become a physical therapist when she transferred to Centre.
“I had a change of heart last summer and now I want to be an athletic trainer or strength and conditioning coach,” she said.
She has worked at SomerSplash, a water park in Somerset, each summer since she was 16 years old. Her boss there is also the athletic trainer at her high school and he told her being a physical therapist is not what he wanted to do. She talked to others in the field and decided she maybe did not want to go to school another four years to be a physical therapist.
“I thought if I could be an athletic trainer I would have more time in life to do other things,” Foutch said.
She won’t be working at the water park this summer. Instead, she’ll be doing research with one of her professors at Centre College.
“I am also going to work some soccer camps and do some other stuff. I will just stay on campus and work here,” she said. “SomerSplash was a great summer job because of my sports schedules but now it’s time to start thinking about my future.”
