Athlete of the Week: Frances Loeb - Women’s track

Senior Frances Loeb has been a staple on the Hopkins women’s cross country and track teams since she arrived to campus in 2011. For the cross country team, she was selected to be on the Centennial Conference’s second team in 2011 and first team in 2013, and she made the conference’s Academic Honor Roll in 2012 and 2013. In 2012, Loeb was the number seven runner on the National Championship team, and in 2013 she was its number three runner. At this year’s National Championship, Loeb was the number four runner and earned her second straight All-American honor as the team took home its third straight National Championship.

Most recently, Loeb raced with the indoor track and field team at Penn State, where she ran a historic race. Loeb set a personal record (by more than 11 seconds), a school record and a Centennial Conference record in the 5,000 meter event with a time of 16:42.57. She came in first against a tough lineup of D-I runners and recorded the fastest time of any D-III runner in the indoor 5K (the previous best was 16:56.65). Therefore, Frances Loeb is The News-Letter’s Athlete of the Week, and she was kind enough to answer a few questions for us.

The News-Letter: You broke your previous personal record by more than 11 seconds; what do you think was the difference between this race and previous 5Ks you have run?

Frances Loeb: My previous 5K PR [personal record] was from last outdoor track season, and I think since then I’ve just put in a lot of training, which made the difference. I put in a really hard summer and beginning indoor season. I am so lucky to have such strong, amazing teammates to train with. We always push each other to new levels, and I think without training together our team would not be nearly as strong as we are. Our coaches are also fantastic and do so much to help us all improve.

N-L: What was it like to not only finish in first place, but do so against a very talented field of D-I runners? 

FL: It was thrilling! I was really hurting at the end of that race, so initially I was a little out of it, but when I recovered a little, I was just so happy with my time and place and started making more goals for the rest of the season.

N-L: Did you ever imagine when you came to Hopkins that you would not only hold the school record for this race, but the conference record as well? 

FL: When starting at Johns Hopkins, my best 5K time was 18:52, so I have come a long way and never would have imagined it. We have an incredible distance program here at Hopkins; it’s amazing the huge strides people on our team make throughout their college careers.  

N-L: What difference do you see in this year’s track and field team compared to last year’s?

FL: We have a new sprint coach, Shedrick Elliot III, who is excellent and definitely improving our program as a whole. We also have a new jumps coach, Lindsey Dubas, who I think is also helping our program a lot. I think we’re only improving our program, and I’m excited to see what our team can accomplish by the end of the season.

N-L: What is your favorite part about attending Hopkins?

FL: I love Hopkins; I am having an amazing college experience here! I think one of my favorite parts of Hopkins is the people I have met here and the culture of the student body. People here are so well-rounded and not only excel academically but pursue a lot of different interests and offer really interesting perspectives on things. My friends and peers here are very supportive and push me to work as hard as them and be my best.

The Hopkins women’s indoor track and field team returns to action this weekend at the McElligot Invitational, hosted by Haverford College.