Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

By Jay Spivey

For the Clemmons Courier

Sophie Cowart is someone who has taken advantage of something she never expected — running for a college team.

Cowart, a 2023 West Forsyth graduate, was recruited late by Campbell University, but as she is about to start her sophomore year there, she is thriving on the cross-country and indoor and outdoor track-and-field team in Buies Creek.

“Back when I was trying to figure out where I wanted to go to college, before I wasn’t even looking at Campbell. I wasn’t even thinking I was going to run in college,” she said. “I just assumed that I was going to go to a bigger school and not run. I just didn’t think I could.”

That’s counter to the times she put up in high school with the Titans. According to athletic.net, Cowart was in the 2023 outdoor NCHSAA Class 4-A Midwest Regional and finished 5:48.43 in the 1,600-meter run. She also helped the 4×800 relay team of Cowart, Lulu Serang, Dempsey Burgess-Baldi and Tenley Douglass finish at 10:01.25.

“I guess my coach at Campbell (Virgil Givens) reached out to (Nathan) Newsome (head coach at West Forsyth), and I think he, I don’t know how he knew about me. I guess he just asked about me,” Cowart said. “And so, Newsome gave him my number and I called him, and I was like, oh, I was surprised that a DI coach was reaching out to me. I had one of those before.”

Cowart said that UNC Asheville also reached out to her, but she never pursued it because she decided she didn’t want to run in college.

“I talked with the Campbell coach for a while, and I (thought), ‘He seems pretty nice. I’m actually going to check this one out,'” she said. “So, I visited, and everybody was nice, and I really liked the vibes.

“And so, I (thought) ‘You know what? I’ll give this a try.'”

In February 2023, Cowart was weighing her options.

“I was deciding where I was going to go. It was either Campbell to run or N.C. State just to not run, I guess. And I was really having a tough time deciding because both options were very good options.”

She elected to run for Campbell, which is a DI school in the NCAA.

“If I don’t like it, I can always go back to N.C. State or another school,” Cowart said.

In the back of her mind, she was hesitant about running in college because she didn’t think she was good enough, and she was somewhat burned out. Once Givens gave Cowart the offer, he gave her two weeks to accept.

“I probably would’ve just postponed that decision for a weird amount of time,” she said. “So, the two weeks was a good amount of time.”
Choosing Campbell proved to be the right move for Cowart.

“I’m very happy with my decision. I love Campbell, and I’m really good friends with all my teammates,” she said. “And we’re such a big family.”
As she graduated from West Forsyth last June and had all of last summer before reporting to Campbell last year, she had time to think.

“I was kind of scared,” Cowart said. “I was training real hard, and just talking with the other recruits that were going. And we were all kind of scared and no one knew each other yet. And I didn’t know anybody going to that college from high school, so it was completely starting new.”

It was tough going from a senior in high school to a freshman in college.

“I think it was like the aspect of starting on a DI team or whatever, plus the idea of going away from home, everything college-related,” Cowart said. “Both of those things just really stressed me out, not stressed me out, but got me excited and nervous in an excited way.”

Cowart ran cross-country for the Camels last fall, meaning most races are 6K in college compared to the usual 5K in high school.

“I think my high school coach prepared me pretty well,” she said. “The training was pretty similar. I think I realized that some of my college teammates were kind of startled by it, but I think Newsome prepared me rather well for that.”

In the Colonial Athletic Association cross-country championships in October Cowart ran the 3.73 meters at 25:52.4 according to tfrrs.org. Her best result in cross-country last fall, according to tfrrs.org, was 19:32.4 in October in a 5K in the Royals Challege.

In the CAA indoor track-and-field championship in February, she ran the 4×800 at 9:46.57 and 13:00.49 in the distance medley relay.
This offseason has been a little different for Cowart.

“At the end of track, I got injured, like I had a stress fracture in my tibia,” she said. “So, I was in a boot for about eight weeks. So, I was out for running, and I have been doing PT (physical therapy) since I’ve been home at Novant.”

Cowart said her leg first started bothering her this spring during spring break.

“I feel 100 percent, but my endurance level since I haven’t been running all summer is a little low,” she said. “But I’m just starting to build my mileage back up. I just finished my week, my weekly mileage, and I just got 20 miles. At about this time last year I was doing about 40 or 50 miles.”

It’s all a process for her mentally and physically as she ramps up for another grueling running year in cross-country and track and field at Campbell.

“It’s tough to know that I was doing a lot more last year at this time than I am this year,” Cowart said. “But the PT people have tried to tell me to slowly go into it.”

Barring any more injuries, the sky’s the limit for Cowart.

“I’m hoping just to stay healthy,” she said. “I hope I can PR (personal record). I’ve got that mental block of not running for a while and being injured. But my goals are just PR, basically.”

She reports soon in Buies Creek for the cross-country season as a sophomore for the Camels, but she knows she has to be cautious with her injury despite being pain-free.

“I keep in touch with all my teammates,” Cowart said. “We’re all excited to go back. We miss each other. And year, we’re all excited to go back.”

Although graduation for her at Campbell is nearly three years away, Cowart is majoring in finance.

“It took a while just to figure out I liked finance, but I’ve done some business classes and I think I enjoyed it,” she said. “So, but we’ll see what the future holds with me, for me as far as jobs go.”