The following interview has been edited lightly for clarity and space. You can listen to the full interview with Coach Laurie Henes on the CITIUS MAG Podcast – available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your shows.

CITIUS MAG: How's everything been now that the team celebrations have calmed down and the indoor season has started? Where are we at with the team?

Coach Laurie Henes: We had a lot going on the last couple weeks of the cross country season. Right now we're just trying to get everybody back healthy and recovered. It's been a bit of a journey over the last couple of weeks. There's just so much emotion that went into all of it… But we’re finally in a place where we can reflect on it and be really grateful that we were able to do what we did… Everybody was so happy with it. Even if it turned out a different way, I think they still would have been happy with how they ran for each other and how they responded.

CITIUS MAG: How hard was everything to manage over the two weeks leading up to NCAAs with Kelsey ruled out and several members of the team getting sick?

Coach Henes: We’ve always said it the last couple of years: “Things don't have to be perfect.” I don't know that anyone in our top five would say that they had the most amazing individual race. But that’s the team part of the sport that everyone loves. If you put together a good enough day with everyone just giving everything they've got, sometimes that works out.

CITIUS MAG: [Katelyn] said you were going crazy at the 5K mark and that she rarely sees that out of you. What overcame you with emotion? It got something out of her to rally. But for you, what were you going through?

Coach Henes: When I saw Katelyn I was torn – I could tell how much she was struggling so I was between being like, “It's okay to stop” and “We could still win and we are still winning,” so I went with the latter… I didn’t realize until later that she'd fallen back to 11th and then got those people back at the end. I think that just speaks to how important the team is to her with what she was able to do… It just goes to show you what kind of teammate Katelyn is. The team aspect of it is just so important to her. As she said in the press conference, she knew that everybody else was giving their all and she wanted to make sure that she did the same thing.

CITIUS MAG: The lasting image we have from [the 2023 NCAA Cross Country Championships] is when immediately after the race she looks up at the scoreboard, runs toward you and you two embrace. It's the perfect exclamation point to Katelyn’s NC State career. How do you reflect on the time that she put [into the program]?

Coach Henes: Neither one of us are particularly emotional people, so I don't I don't know exactly where that came from. I think she just put everything out there. It says a lot about her and her career in general. She came in struggling, having got hurt at the end of high school. I'm so grateful that this program was able to help her get back and that she had the teammates and support here that she was able to come back after a disappointing end to her high school career and be able to have the career she's had here at NC State. I know some of her last individual [performances] weren't what she was hoping for or what we thought could have happened, but for her to end on a team championship will mean a lot to her looking back and it means so much to our program, staff and everyone at NC State.

CITIUS MAG: Some coaches shy away from the challenge of taking on a star high school runner. Others might take it on, but keep [their training] individualized. But for you, the approach was always that Katelyn was a part of the team and she's going to train with everyone and do everything that the team is doing. Why did that work so well?

Coach Henes: We've been fortunate to have groups that she can do most of [her training] with. There's very little separation – only when it's something I feel that she needs to do to be successful nationally… Even now, probably 90% of her training is with other people in the program still… I think it works well in our program when people want to train with other people. Obviously, you have to do some things individually for people at a super high level, but most of the really high-level recruits we bring in are very team-oriented, and that's what they're looking for in the experience.

CITIUS MAG: It's hard to miss someone when they're still around and you're still working with them. But is any part of you going to miss seeing her in an NC State uniform?

Coach Henes: We will miss her immensely. Program-wise, she won’t be at practice everyday, but she'll definitely be around. It’ll just be a little bit of a different focus. She and I are both super excited for that next step.