Saginaw Valley State University Athletics will be releasing a series of student-athlete spotlights, which will feature some of our Cardinal senior student-athletes from the 2019-20 academic year. Stay tuned to www.svsucardinals.com to get to know our SVSU seniors a bit more.
Next up in our series is Women's Track & Field student-athlete Lauren Huebner. Huebner is a native of Saginaw, Michigan and graduate of Swan Valley High School, where she was an all-state performer in both volleyball and track. She graduated salutatorian of her class as well. She has been a member of the track & field team the past four seasons. She competes in many events, including the 200 and 400 sprints, 60, 100 and 400 hurdles, long jump and high jump. She competes in the pentathlon and heptathlon, where she has excelled with her versatility in the multi events.
Huebner has achieved great successes both on the track and in the classroom for the Cardinals. She has garnered two All-American honors, with her first coming at the 2019 NCAA Indoor Championships in a third place finish in the pentathlon. She would follow that up by winning the national championship in the heptathlon at the 2019 NCAA Outdoor Championships. She was the 2019 GLIAC Outdoor champion in the 100 and 400 hurdles and would be named the GLIAC Track Athlete of the Meet and High Point Athlete of the Meet. In 2020, she was a part of the DMR team that won the league title and was an all-region performer in three events. She was set to compete at the 2020 Indoor Championships in the pentathlon and 4 x 400 meter relay.
To cap-off the 2019 season, she was named a First Team Academic All-American as well. Lauren recently earned the prestigious GLIAC Winter Commissioner's Award for the second straight season, becoming just the third SVSU student-athlete to garner that award twice. She has earned three previous USTFCCCA National All-Academic honors and been named to the GLIAC All-Academic Excellence team three times.
Lauren's favorite spot on campus is the beautiful indoor track, which is in the SVSU Fieldhouse. She is set to graduate in December 2021 with her master's of science degree in occupational therapy. She plans to work in a school-based pediatric setting after graduation and likely pursue her doctorate degree in OT.
Huebner's favorite memories while competing for Saginaw Valley include when she won the national championship in the heptathlon at the 2019 NCAA Division II Outdoor Championships in Kingsville, Texas and when she broke the 400 meter indoor record on senior night this season. Some of the best other moments were when she would run in or cheer on her teammates in the 4 x 4 relays at the end of the meet, with everyone yelling and cheering as a team!
Outside of athletics, Lauren enjoys camping. She has always loved being outside hiking and going to the beach, and camping is always a great time to share with friends and family. She also likes to paint, saying although she is not the best it's a relaxing hobby she has picked up.
Lauren always enjoyed the team's road trips to California each year, as they were always a highlight of the season getting to travel across the country with some of her best friends and getting to compete in some great weather. Another great trip was the team's trek to Kingsville, Texas in 2019 where she claimed her national championship and got to see some of her Cardinal teammates become All-Americans before watching a great day of the finals with her team the following day.
Lauren Huebner on her time at Saginaw Valley State University
"My time with the track & field program has been one of the most rewarding things I have ever done. Not a day goes by that I don't appreciate all of the friends I've made and the memories that I will carry with me for a lifetime. I want to thank the coaching and athletic training staffs for always believing in me and making the efforts to help me become a champion!"
SVSU Track & Field Head Coach Rod Cowan on Lauren Huebner...
"Lauren might be the most unselfish student-athlete that I've coached in my 20 year career. In our last three GLIAC track championships, she sacrificed individual accolades in favor of team success. In an individual sport such as track & field, that type of selflessness is extremely rare! Her individual accolades would later come in the form of two All-American honors, with one being the individual national champion in the women's heptathlon!"
