As the women's cross country team exited its plane in Indianapolis two days before the NCAA Championship, Genevieve LaCaze dashed to the front of the crowd.
LaCaze, the Southeastern Conference Female Freshman of the Year, knows a thing or two about leading the pack, but this time was different.
She wasn't rushing to prove that she could beat someone, to lower her team's score or to top a personal-best time.
She was running to see her parents.
LaCaze moved to Gainesville from Australia and hadn't seen her family since she settled in at UF.
Her mother and father came to America to watch their 19-year-old daughter lead the Gators to a 17th-place finish in the NCAA Championship and to spend Thanksgiving with her.
Although not every part of her transition to the United States has not been easy, the Queensland, Australia native has fallen right into place on the women's cross country team - on and off the course.
Leaving Home
Living in America wasn't something LaCaze had always dreamed of. In fact, it took quite a bit of convincing to get her to leave Australia, where she had lived her entire life.
"To be honest, I didn't consider coming to America until about a month before I came," she said. "I was just so nervous about leaving home. I have never left home for this long in my life. So coming over here wasn't really an option to me."
But Tony and Donna LaCaze encouraged their daughter to attend an American university. She said her dad did a lot of the "behind-the-scenes work" without her knowing, because he was well-aware she wasn't interested.
UF coach Todd Morgan, who had also dealt with LaCaze's high school coach while recruiting another athlete, worked with her father when trying to get the young Australian to join the Gators.
"(The hardest part) was getting her to take a chance," Morgan said. "She was really comfortable over there, with lots of friends and a great family. In her school, she was very well-liked, so leaving that was the biggest challenge."
Morgan's primary focus when recruiting LaCaze was obviously different than it was with most runners. He didn't just have to convince her UF was where she belonged, he had to show LaCaze America was the right place for her.
"It was almost more about selling that than selling the University of Florida," he said. "I really didn't know what to expect when she got here. I was hopeful that she would fit in and like it, but she was close to her family, so I really didn't know."
LaCaze received offers from several schools, but her final two options were UF and Texas A&M.
Fortunately for Morgan and the Gators, her home state of Queensland has a lot in common with Florida, including a shared nickname: "The Sunshine State."
"Being in this atmosphere, it's so much more like home," she said. "The weather's like home. And Americans, I've noticed, are so welcoming to Australians, so I've found it quite easy to settle in."
London native Charlotte Browning said LaCaze made an immediately successful transition on the course, but had some trouble at first being so far away from home.
"I know she's very close to her family, so she found it hard to start with," Browning said. "From her racing, you wouldn't be able to tell. She obviously sees that this is a great opportunity, and she's really happy to be here. And that just comes out in her racing."
LaCaze said she had never left Queensland for longer than a week before college. In just four months away from the comfort of home, she's already made her presence felt in America.
A Successful Transition
On Sept. 20, LaCaze ran her first cross country race as a Gator, taking first place and clocking in at 17:34.79, the fifth-fastest time ever recorded on the UF Golf Course.
She kept that pace up through the entire season. Her lowest finishes were third on the team and, in the national championship, 75th in the country. With her help, the women's team never finished lower than fifth place in a regular-season meet in which she participated.
It took a while, however, for LaCaze to understand how her performances were helping the team - even in the most basic of forms.
"I didn't realize how late in the season it was that she started to really grasp how we score cross country meets in the United States," Morgan said. "It's a little frightening that I took it for granted. She obviously ran as hard as she could in every meet and did the best she could, so it didn't hurt us. But it was a little funny."
There are several different scoring systems used across the world, but runners who attended American high schools grew up with the system used in the NCAA,which scores the team's top-5 runners.
It wasn't until the Pre-NCAA Invitational, halfway through the season, that LaCaze began to make sense of the new system. Not that it really mattered, as her consistent performances led to her being named the SEC Female Freshman of the Year.
LaCaze said the reactions to her success - back home, in Gainesville and even in class - have been overwhelming. She's had teachers congratulate her, friends living in Australia text her, saying, "You're a superstar back home," and children sing her praises.
"Even with little kids, one of them went, 'This girl, she got SEC Freshman of the Year,'" she said. "And they're all like, 'Oh, wow, so you're fast!'"
The team never had any doubts about her speed, even as a freshman starting her first college season. LaCaze said senior Jacy Kruzel, one of the team's leaders and top runners, approached her after a practice and told her, "It was good of you to take the lead in one of our reps, because freshmen never take the lead. They're either too scared, or they're too slow."
LaCaze has shown no signs of being too slow on the course, and she certainly hasn't been afraid - even as a new freshman on a campus of more than 50,000 people.
A New Home
Fortunately for LaCaze, the women's cross country team was coming off a successful year that they were hoping to capitalize on. After placing 11th at the 2007 NCAA Championship, the Gators had an opportunity to establish their program on a national level with the right mix of talent and chemistry.
"Our girls want to be good, and they know the only way to do that is to get good people here," Morgan said. "It was just such a bonus that her personality and character were so great, and that's why the situation's gone so well."
LaCaze's teammates welcomed her with open arms. Browning, a sophomore who transferred to UF after one year at UNLV, has been particularly close to the freshman.
"She formed a quick bond with Charlotte because they were both new and both going through orientation together," Morgan said. "And that was a blessing because they both connected."
LaCaze, who has three brothers but no sisters, said they looked out for each other like family.
"She's been probably the best influence settling in," LaCaze said. "All the girls have been great, but Charlotte's been more like a sister to me because we're so close."
Browning, who had already made the adjustment to America, said she and her teammates have done whatever they can to make LaCaze feel at home in Gainesville.
"Even if we're not traveling, we try and go out as a team and do things," Browning said. "She left her family at home obviously, so we've tried to create a family atmosphere over here for her."
So where do they take the Australian to remind her of home? Outback Steakhouse, of course.
"Oh, we've taken her to Outback," Browning said, laughing. "She's very happy, very content when she's there."
LaCaze admitted that she lights up whenever someone brings up going to the restaurant, but probably not for the same reason most people do.
"I don't think it's anything like home," she said. "It's just the name and the fact that people there will say this is the Australian side of America. I just get excited. I feel like I'm close to home."
Even though the country with the real Outback will always be home to LaCaze, she's quickly established herself as the future of the cross country program at UF, her home away from home.
