The combination of effort and closeness with her teammates has helped Erica Van Voast become the 2006 California Collegiate Athletic Association Freshmen of the Year, the first Gator ever to win this honor.

Van Voast’s willingness to work hard and the bond she has formed with fellow freshmen runners Cynthia Chaidez, Miranda Houston and Alix Kitka led to her achievement.

Erica is a hard worker, and probably trains the hardest of all the freshmen girls on the team, said Houston, an 18-year-old criminal justice major.

“I feel like if you’re going to do something, you should put your best foot forward,” said Van Voast, 18, undeclared.

She trained over the summer in her hometown in Colorado, a popular place to train for professional athletes. The altitude helps athletes work hard because of less oxygen and thin air.

Van Voast ran 35 to 40 miles a week in the beginning of June and gradually worked her way up to 50 miles per week in July and August.

Cross country coach Tom Lyons said Van Voast had a chance to do well this season after the team’s first practice when she was one of the top runners in a two-mile time trial.

“She followed the training program over the summer and came in ready and prepared,” Lyons said.

Van Voast has been among the front-runners on the team, usually the third runner at meets this season.

Lyons said she figured Van Voast and Kitka – who has come in first or second on the team in the four races she has run – along with a freshman from Humboldt State and a freshman from San Diego State, would be in contention for the award. The freshman who finished first at the conference championships would get the award.

Lyons said the award was not something that mattered before the race because it was secondary compared to running with the team, and individual accomplishments take care of themselves.

Van Voast said she didn’t think much about the award before the race. Her focus was on the team and training hard leading up to the race because Lyons said the team could be better than any team SF State has ever had.

The cross country team started out slow at the California Collegiate Athletic Association Conference Championships in La Jolla on Oct. 21. Senior captain Kristin Gallup, a top runner on the team, hurt her knee early in the race.

“Just knowing that she wasn’t going to finish as high as she could, I just pushed harder,”
Van Voast said.

To her surprise, Lyons said she was in 21st place after the three-mile mark, which made her determined to not let anybody pass her.

Van Voast finished at 22nd and could not place any lower because the three other freshmen came in behind her simultaneously.

Van Voast said being close friends with Chaidez, Houston, and Kitka has made it easier for her to run for the team.

Houston also runs for the team because she has become close with them.

"Mentally it helps to have your friends when you’re running because it’s easier to run, not only for yourself but for the rest of the girls also, because you don’t want to let them down," Houston said.

The four friends encourage each other as the whole team does during practice by clapping, giving each other high-fives and telling one another to “keep it up.”

During the race, they cannot say too much, but they say whatever they can if they’re not too tired, usually. “Good job,” if one passes the other.

“It’s exciting to get recognition in a non-spectator sport for all the hard work that I’ve put in and my teammates have put in,” Van Voast said.