By RICHIE HALL
In talking with Cole Martin, a soon-to-be graduate of DePauw University, a word that kept popping up was “autonomy.”
The word, depending on which dictionary or source one uses, means the right of self-government, or self-directing freedom, among other things – the bottom line is that the word is synonymous with independence.
Martin got a chance to put autonomy into practice during his experience at DePauw, both as a student and as an athlete on the Tigers’ cross country and track teams. He had good role models in the members of the senior class Martin met as a freshman, and gradually took on more leadership as he matriculated through school.
“I had a great time at DePauw with the cross country and track teams there,” said Martin. “It was a great experience there.”
Martin came to DePauw from Noblesville High School, where he was a state qualifier in both sports (individually in cross country and as part of the Millers 4×800 relay team in track) as a senior. Once at Greencastle, he was back to being a freshman, but it was a great learning opportunity, as Martin said he was “surrounded by an incredible team.”
“I was amazed by the team and everybody on it and how professional and how cool they were in the eyes of the freshmen,” said Martin. “Just being around them just really pushed me to emulate some of the things they were doing.”
Martin also quickly learned about autonomy, as that is one of the big differences between high school and college: Athletes take more responsibility for their own training.
“When you’re 14 to 18 years old, you need to have your hand held through a lot of different things,” said Martin. As he talked with the upperclassmen, Martin learned they took things into their own hands.
“Whatever we were going to get out of our season was on us,” he said.
“The runners themselves took it upon themselves to organize the team, and especially being on campus where the physical proximity is so close, it’s not hard to send out a message to say, ‘Hey, we’re meeting at our house at 4 p.m. today,’” said Martin.
As Martin became a stronger runner, he also took on more of a leadership role and was the cross country team’s captain by his senior year. His results continued to improve as well. Among the highlights: Martin placed first out of over 250 runners to win the gold division of the Loyola Lakefront Invitational at Chicago on Sept. 28. He placed second at the North Coast Athletic Conference Championships on Nov. 2, which took place at the nearby Northview Church in Carmel.
In the post-season, Martin ran a personal best 24:35.7 at the NCAA Great Lakes Regionals at Grand Rapids, Mich. on Nov. 16. Martin finished 19th and advanced to the Division III national championships on Nov. 23 at Louisville’s E.M. “Tom” Sawyer State Park, where he took 91st.
“Cole was a perfect example of the collegiate student athlete,” said Tigers coach Kori Stoffregen. “He was a great student and was highly motivated to do well both as a runner and as a student. Cole ran varsity all four years but really made great progress his senior year of cross country. He had to step up as our No. 1 runner and lead a great team. He was an outstanding captain.”
Martin was racing at nationals for the third time in his DePauw career, but the first as an individual. The entire Tigers team went to nationals during his sophomore and junior years.
“They’re different every year,” said Martin. DePauw’s team appearance at nationals in Martin’s sophomore year was the first time the Tigers made it to the big meet in 13 years, so the team was excited to be running.
The next year, Martin said he went into the national championships “knowing a little more and trying not to let everything overwhelm me.” His time at nationals was 25:42.4, and he was coming off a 15th-place finish at the Great Lakes Regional.
In his senior year, Martin was in the position to earn All-American status, one of his goals. While he fell short, he was still satisfied with how the race went.
“That last race, regardless of how it turned out, was one of my favorites,” said Martin. “I took control of it and that was definitely the most complete cross country race I had. At the end there was nothing more I had to give. I was pretty satisfied with the outcome.”
Martin had similar success in track and field, although his career came to an abrupt end when NCAA athletics were halted due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Martin already had put together a solid list of credentials: As a freshman, he was part of the first-place distance medley relay team at the North Coast championships, this after taking second in the 800 at the DePauw Tiger Small College Indoor Invitational. Martin placed third in the 10,000-meter run during his sophomore year at the NCAC Outdoor Championships, the same year he was named to the NCAC Academic Honor Roll.
The 10K race at the conference championship was the second time Martin had run that long-distance event. He said he knew what to do in that race because of the experience he had in running the first one. “It’s all about patience and knowing when to go,” he said.
Martin didn’t run track his junior year because he was studying abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
“That was really cool for me, especially because it was an introduction to urban life. I interacted with Indy but I hadn’t lived in the center of it. I got the experience of living in the city, commuting to work every day,” said Martin.
The experience fit in for Martin, who is an interdisciplinary major. Martin said he is technically an urban studies major, and he also had minors in Spanish and Computer Science. But, his classroom experience has been geared towards cities and he has drawn from a variety of different disciplines to do that.
“I never wanted to limit myself to one particular discipline, because I have enjoyed all of my classes at DePauw and I would be remiss to limit myself to one specific field,” said Martin. “An Interdisciplinary major allowed me to focus on a particular topic, but to view it through the lens of a variety of different disciplines.”
That included history, political science, sociology and economics, among others.
“My education just allowed me to get a range of ideas and apply them to a variety of different disciplines,” said Martin.
During his semester abroad, Martin worked at Poder Ciudadano, an Argentine non-profit. The organization, in a translation from its website, said it was born “as an initiative of a group of citizens concerned with the defense of civic rights in our country.” Poder Ciudadano is a branch of Transparency International, which Martin said works in citizen empowerment.
Martin called his semester in Buenos Aires a “big learning experience for me and I was very lucky to have great people around me who were very understanding and becoming good friends.” The experience helped him to develop confidence in himself and was helpful for him to figure out what has next steps after college were.
Those steps have been determined, as Martin said he has accepted a position at Kronos Incorporated in downtown Indianapolis.
“They do timekeeping,” said Martin. “Human resources. They’re a software company and they do the same work that Salesforce does.”
Kronos is merging with another company called Alternate Software.
“I might take on some different roles,” said Martin. “I’m interested to see how that goes.”
As Martin received the job offer, he also heard the news about the NCAA spring season getting canceled.
“Unfortunately, the cancellation of this spring track season kept Cole from achieving some of his personal goals,” said Stoffregen. “He was definitely progressing in a way that he was going to have a great season. We will miss Cole. He was a joy to coach.”
Stoffregen called a meeting in DePauw’s athletic center, where the Tigers had a chance to say goodbye to each other as teammates, although the relationships after college will last for much longer.
“It was pretty bittersweet,” said Martin. “The athletic side of it, I can’t complain. I’m very happy with the things I’ve been able to do.”
“I was happy that I was able to have the semester and a half that I had this year.”
Cole Martin was a varsity runner for all four years on the DePauw cross country and track teams. Martin grew as a runner, student and leader during his with the Tigers. (Photo by Stacie Stoffregen)