IU cross country player Sarah Pease goes from walk-on to All-American

Sarah Pease could not tell you what goes on in her mind during a race.

Sure, the senior runner thinks about her race plan that she sets with coach Ron Helmer, but what goes on during one of Pease’s races takes more than just a plan. It takes heart and a refusal to lose, two qualities that Helmer said he has never seen so much of in one athlete.

“Sarah is probably the toughest kid that I have ever coached, as in physical, mental and emotional toughness,” Helmer said. “As a sophomore, I didn’t know that she was going to become half the runner she is now, but what I at least knew was she was going to get the most out of herself for us.”

Why didn’t Helmer know that Pease, who placed fourth at the NCAA Outdoor Championships and at the USA Senior Championships in the steeplechase — and earned All-America honors as a junior — was going to be an IU star?

Pease never gave much indication in high school of the great runner she would become, having never placed higher than 80th at a high school state event, having never scored in a state event and having walked onto the IU women’s cross country team.

"Someone like Sarah that never scored or came close to scoring in high school, to become an All-American and to become a national meet scorer — it happens and I’ve had it happen before, but it’s a once-every-20-years type of thing,” Helmer said.

Before Helmer became coach, Pease had yet to deliver big results, but her positive attitude stuck out to assistant track coach Jake Wiseman.

“When I took the job here, I sat down with Wiseman and tried to go through the roster to get his take on the players,” Helmer said. “All he told me was, ‘She’s not very good, but I really like that girl because she’s really tough, and I think there might be
something there.’”

Pease, whose graduating class at South Central High School in Elizabeth, Ind., was less than 60 students, said she had always dreamt of attending and running for IU. Although the senior admits she didn’t know where she was going to be by the end of her collegiate career, she continued to put 100 percent effort into the team as Helmer entered the program.

“As the years went on and coach Helmer came here, I kept getting better because I followed everything he said, and I had good teammates to push me, so it just kept getting better,” Pease said. “I just kind of went step-by-step through the program, and now I am running faster than I ever have before.”

Helmer said Pease’s road from a walk-on freshman to a star senior has been a gradual evolution. He said he can’t pinpoint when Pease began to turn it on, but that she will continue to improve because of her work ethic.

“With Sarah, it’s ‘Tell me what to do and I’ll do it to the best of my abilities,’” Helmer said. “She never has a bad race, and she never has a bad workout, because she does not allow that to be an option. She just goes hard every day, and there are no wasted days with her.”

Pease and Helmer have set their collective sights on achieving three goals this cross country season: win the Big Ten and Regional Championships, earn an All-American honor and be in the top 20 national rankings or better.

“She shocked me this last spring when she scored at the National Championships for the first time in the steeplechase,” Helmer said. “Every time I see her do something like that, even though I see her work every day in practice and know what kind of attitude she has, it still shocks me, and I don’t doubt that she will continue to shock me.”