Laura Hartpence has made a career out of helping Colgate students prepare for life after college.

But when she heard the track & field team needed a throwing coach two months before the start of the season, Hartpence, a senior associate director of Career Services, signed up for the job.

Hartpence is not only a member of Colgate's career services team, she's a former track & field and cross country coach who earned All-America honors in the discus as an undergraduate.

It had been 13 years since Hartpence last coached track. But the decision to return to the sport was an easy one.

"I remember how formative my own college athletics experience was and working with the track team felt like a natural extension of the work I already get to do to support students as they set goals, make action plans, and prepare for life after Colgate," Hartpence said.

She agreed in October to be an interim throwing coach as Colgate searched for a new head coach to replace HarlisMeaders, who stepped down from his role as the director of track & field and cross country. Meaders also worked closely with the throws teams. 

But what began as a job that would last a few weeks morphed into a season-long role for Hartpence, who built close bonds with student-athletes and watched them blossom.
 

"Working with the track team has been a really rewarding experience this year and will forever be among my favorite Colgate memories," she said. "It has been wonderful to connect with our students in a different way and get a more holistic perspective on the student life at Colgate."

When the season began in December, Head Coach Chelsea France took over the program. With a new regime, the men's and women's track teams went on to earn their strongest finish in the Patriot League Championships in more than a decade. 

Ten student-athletes in the throws achieved new personal bests this season. Dominique Groguhe '23 set new program records in the weight throw, hammer throw, and discus. She and teammate Cole Blair '25, who competes in the long jump, qualified for the NCAA Preliminaries.

Groguhe, a senior captain, said the throws team had been functioning without an event coach, with student-athletes doing whatever they could on their own, when Hartpence joined the program. 

She praised Hartpence for making the transition to a new throws coach as smooth as possible for student-athletes. She said Hartpence brought significant knowledge about throws techniques, and worked hard to establish relationships with the throwers. 

"She would always ask us how things were going outside of practice and track, and take into consideration those aspects of our lives when designing our practice schedules," Groguhe said. 

"She would also advocate for us as an event group, doing what she could to make sure we had the space and resources we needed at our disposal. I think that her friendliness, open-mindedness, and dedication made her a great coach to the throws group and I, and her support has helped me improve drastically as a thrower."

Fellow senior captain Jonathan David '23 said Hartpence stepped into a difficult situation and helped the throwers improve. 
 

"Many of our throwers had worked with Coach Meaders for multiple years, and it wasn't easy for us when he decided to leave," David said. "However, Coach Hartpence provided us with a ton of support and expertise that we really needed. She was a great advocate to have, and I think that having her as a coach this year helped us all get closer to the goals that we want to achieve."

David said Hartpence deserves much credit for the team's success and the personal records that student-athletes set this season. 

"Working with Coach Hartpence this year was a great experience, and I can't thank her enough for all of the hard work that she did to help us this season," he said. "She stepped up in a time when our throws group really needed her and helped us immensely."

Hartpence, an Ohio native, earned four conference titles each in the discus and shot-put at Denison, and also she competed in four NCAA D-III national championships. She was named to the North Coast Athletic Conference 20th and 30th anniversary teams and was inducted into the university's Hall of Fame.

She spent the first six years of her professional career as a track & field and cross country coach at Slippery Rock University, Ohio Wesleyan, and Denison before leaving the profession to become an adjunct instructor in the natural sciences. She later shifted to career services work.
 
Now with the spring season concluded, one of her final acts as throws coach came in mid-May when she worked with Groguhe to prepare for the NCAA Preliminaries. She also joined Groguhe and Blair in Florida for the event during the week of May 22.

"I feel tremendously lucky to have had an opportunity to work with the track and field student athletes this year and I am excited to see where the team goes with new head coach Chelsea France at the helm," Hartpence said.