Like all student-athletes, Trisha-Ann Hawthorne says that she had to make some adjustments when she first arrived at UConn. She thought track in college would be the same as in high school – show up for practice when it was convenient and then run in meets.
“It was a rude awakening when I realized I would have to show up at practice every day, that it was mandatory and that rehab (from injuries) was mandatory,” says Hawthorne, a senior sprinter on the women’s track and field team who is the most decorated track athlete in Huskies’ history. “I was very stubborn and wanted to do everything my way. I had to learn how to accept orders from the coaches and not question it. We had sprinters on the team that were fast and pushing me. I had to go out and prove myself. It got me more hungry to compete.”
As Hawthorne begins to close out her college career, she is the Husky record-holder for both indoor (55 meter, 60M, 200M) and outdoor (100M, 200M, 4x100M, 4x200M) sprint events, and holds multiple sprint titles in many of the same events in the Big East, ECACS and New England Championships. She is also an NCAA All-American in the 100 meter sprint and won the silver medal in the 4×100 event in the Under 23 North American, Central American and Caribbean Athletic Association (NACAC) representing Jamaica. With her selection to the Big East All-Academic Team, her work in the classroom matches her accomplishments on the track.
Last weekend at the Big East Championships in Philadelphia, Hawthorne won both the 100M and 200M to become the first four-time champion in two separate events, as the Huskies finished third in the team competition. She tied her own UConn record in the 100M at 11.31. Meghan Cunningham scored the only other title for the Huskies in the 3,000M steeplechase, while the 4x400M team of Ana Groff, Tiffany Daley, Celina Emerson and Imani Sudlow and the 4x800M relay team of Leah Andrianos, Heather Wilson, Brigitte Mania and Cunningham each took second.
“To have a coach like Coach T that’s constantly pushing me has brought me along this journey easier,” she says of assistant coach Clive Terrelonge, a two-time Olympian for Jamaica and two-time NCAA 400M champion who works with Husky sprinters and hurdlers. “If he wasn’t here, I don’t know where I’d be now.”
Terrelonge says that Hawthorne arrived in Storrs as a raw talent — a competitive athlete with natural speed but the need to become stronger and learn better technique that could improve her speed.
“It doesn’t matter what level you go to there’s going to be something different a coach will see about your technique that’s not where it should be,” says Terrelonge. “In order to retrain, it takes a lot of repetition. If you step out of the box a meter shorter than your body is used to going, it’s going to make a huge difference in where you’re going to finish. Inches make a lot of difference in track and field. You have to train the central nervous system all the time. You have to do short repetition of quick stuff. You have to train muscle memory all the time.”
As a two-year captain for the women’s track and field team, Hawthorne also has responsibilities to guide a young group of Husky sprinters and hurdlers who must make the same transition she did four years ago.
“I’ve tried to share my experience with them. There are things you have to learn, and growing to do. They want to win; they want to succeed, so they’re trying,” she says.
Bill Morgan, now in his 30th year at UConn and seventh season as head coach, says the consistency of the women’s track and field team has grown in recent years with the addition of experienced full-time assistant coaches who can develop student-athletes such as Hawthorne to compete at a high level.
“We had to have the right staff in place,” Morgan says. “What I wanted to do was to bring in two professional athletes, Olympic athletes. That was the point when we changed directions.”
Morgan coaches field events, Terrelonge the sprinters and Andrea Grove-McDonough, a former member of the Canadian National Team now in her third year, handles distance runners. In 2009 Morgan and Terrelonge were Division I Women’s Northeast Regional Coaches of the Year by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.
Hawthorne describes the past four years as “a roller coaster,” with her academic and athletic demands and balancing everything with the recent illness of her father, who is recovering from a kidney ailment, even as she begins to think about the future. A pre-education major, Hawthorne wants to teach high school English. At the same time, she is working on a proposal to develop a nonprofit organization to help homeless people and to provide assistance to domestic violence victims. She hopes to build the organization as part of her family’s business, Golden Krust Caribbean Bakery & Grill, a manufacturer and distributor of Caribbean food products that operates 120 stores in nine states.
For the immediate future, however, Hawthorne remains focused on upcoming competition on the track.
“I haven’t accomplished what I want to yet,” she says “I still didn’t run below 11.1 (in the 100 meters). I’ve tried to put UConn on the map – Yes, people from New England are fast. UConn is not only about basketball. We have athletes here that are really good in other sports. I will be proud to say I helped UConn get to this level.”
The Huskies continue the post-season when they travel this weekend to the ECAC Championships in Princeton, N.J.
