{"id":103866,"date":"2025-10-27T18:36:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T18:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/103866\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T18:36:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T18:36:08","slug":"rotorua-runner-hannah-gapes-earns-top-honours-with-us-college-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/103866\/","title":{"rendered":"Rotorua runner Hannah Gapes earns top honours with US college success"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gapes had realised when she was younger that she had a \u201cnatural talent\u201d for running and wanted to make the most of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy parents encouraged me and my three brothers to be active and competitive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gapes said she would throw herself into any challenge alongside them.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy older brothers were already competing at nationals when I was still too young to race, and the itch to line up myself was incredibly strong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gapes joined Lake City Athletics Club at 12 years old and said growing up in Rotorua shaped her as a runner<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cIts trails and challenging terrain built my strength and love for the outdoors.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said the close-knit running community always supported and encouraged her, crediting her hometown coach, Jason Cameron.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe always believed I had a future in the sport, and he was great at reining me in when I wanted to push too much too soon.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt made running feel like something more than just myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AsAs a student athlete, Hannah (pictured centre #108) will complete a Business Management and Marketing degree next year. <\/p>\n

She dominated the NZ secondary schools cross country and track scene with multiple national wins in 2021<\/a>, which elevated her interest in exploring US universities. <\/p>\n

Gapes said she spent a year researching colleges that would be the best fit.<\/p>\n

She considered several factors before committing to NC State and described the culture there as \u201csecond to none\u201d. <\/p>\n

Gapes moved to Raleigh, North Carolina, at age 18 to pursue track and field. <\/p>\n

\u201cI knew I would be more than well looked after with the state-of-art facilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gapes has gained a significant number of accolades since starting at NC State in 2022<\/a>.<\/p>\n

She was a three-time All-American and two-time All Atlantic Coast Conference Academic with strong performances in Cross Country and Indoor Track. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really hard to sit back in this sport and recognise achievements because everything moves so fast and there\u2019s always the next race or the next goal to chase.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gapes is now ranked New Zealand\u2019s all-time ninth-fastest woman over 3000m, with her best time of 8:48. <\/p>\n

She will race three more times \u2013 in Wisconsin, Kentucky and Virginia \u2013 this year in the lead-up to the US National Cross Country Championships in Missouri. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t often stop and think about it, but talking with people outside the sport gives me perspective and makes me appreciate how far I\u2019ve come.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"GapesGapes will race three more times this year, in Wisconsin, Kentucky and Virginia, in the lead-up to the US National Cross Country champs in Missouri. <\/p>\n

She returned to New Zealand in August and competed in the New Zealand Cross Country Championships.<\/p>\n

Gapes won the 10km senior women\u2019s race by two minutes and gained entry into the World Athletics Cross Country Championships in Tallahassee, Florida, in January 2026.<\/p>\n

Hannah\u2019s mother, Nicola Gapes, said her daughter was a \u201cvery determined\u201d young woman. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have seen her grow and mature into a lovely young person and seen how she has overcome challenges when they come her way.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said Hannah had gone to the US to do the best she could.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s used her time at NC State to really develop as an athlete and make the most of every opportunity that comes her way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kaitlyn Morrell<\/a> is a multimedia journalist for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. She has lived in the region for several years and studied journalism at Massey University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gapes had realised when she was younger that she had a \u201cnatural talent\u201d for running and wanted to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103867,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[12784,11766,75412,22137,7560,111,139,69,1327,6641,213,3502,3010,3040,102],"class_list":{"0":"post-103866","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-college","9":"tag-earns","10":"tag-gapes","11":"tag-hannah","12":"tag-honours","13":"tag-new-zealand","14":"tag-newzealand","15":"tag-nz","16":"tag-rotorua","17":"tag-runner","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-success","20":"tag-top","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-with"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}