Until this year, Ruth White had never run a competitive 10,000 meter race on a track. And now she’s already one of the race’s best collegiate women’s runners in the entire country.
The freshman phenom from Orono, Maine, has set multiple school 10K records at the University of New Hampshire this season. The most recent of those records was good enough for sixth place at NCAA regionals, allowing White to punch her ticket to the national championships in Oregon this week.
White didn’t even know the qualifying process for nationals until partway through the season, she told the Bangor Daily News in a recent interview before heading west for the event in Eugene, Oregon.
“I definitely did not imagine it at all,” White said when asked if she envisioned this at the start of the season. “I’m really lucky that I’ve had so much support to get me here.”
White will run the national 10K event Thursday night with the other 23 top Division I women’s competitors from around the country.
“I just wanna race hard, give it all I’ve got and enjoy the experience,” White said.
She said she felt fortunate to be able to compete in the regional competition, where her time of 32:50.17 was good enough for sixth place, and continued to heap praise on her coaches, teammates, family members and others around her rather than taking credit for herself.
“I definitely owe it all to my coaches, my teammates and family for supporting me this season and just all year, throughout my whole life,” White said. “I mean, it doesn’t happen in one day or one week or one month, even one year. My family — my mom, my sisters — they’ve been there supporting me forever.”
She also credited her coaches for being “so reasonable not over-pushing me.” Despite the excitement surrounding her first 10K race (and first school record) in March, White said her coaches helped manage her mileage and training with an emphasis on keeping her healthy for the entirety of the season.
Though White frequently gives credit to others for her success, there should be little doubt that she more than anyone is responsible for her remarkable college debut this season. Her gutsy performance at regionals was so electric that even the coach who trains with her all the time was on edge.
“Her regional race was beautiful,” UNH assistant track coach for distance Alison Duffy said. “She was persistent, she was unflappable, she was relentless.”
Duffy noted that White actually ran her fastest mile time ever as part of the 6.2 mile regional race in Jacksonville, Florida.
“I was on edge the whole race because I was like, ‘What am I watching here?” Duffy said, noting that White did “exactly what she needed to do” to make moves in the pack of 48 regional runners.
“I just told myself I couldn’t give up,” White said about working to keep up with a fast-moving race that saw all 10 top finishers break the previous course record in Jacksonville.
White appreciates the support she’s received from both the UNH and Maine running communities, and hopes to be a good role model for younger athletes — particularly when it comes to demonstrating good sportsmanship. Local track coaches and other athletic officials have highlighted the way that her success helps inspire younger runners.
The women’s 10K national final is scheduled for 9:56 p.m Thursday. ESPN will broadcast the race nationally on TV, and it will also be available online for those with access to ESPN+ and Disney+.
