Trinity’s D’hoedt pulled off distance running’s triple crown
The grueling and exhausting nature of the three races in combination would physically and mentally drain the most well-conditioned athlete.
That is why – in the 1970s and today – it is unthinkable to even consider running in the 800-, 1,600- and 3,200-meter runs in one day, particularly against the highest level of competition.
The degree of difficulty in successfully completing that uncommon trifecta is what makes what Blanca D’hoedt of Trinity High School did in the spring of 1978 so stunning and incomparable.
D’hoedt (pronounced DOOT), then a Hillers junior, won what was known then as the 880-yard run, mile and two-mile races in the WPIAL girls track and field championships to help Trinity claim the WPIAL team championship.
“To do what she did is difficult any time,” said Jerry Chambers, who was D’hoedt’s coach. “She had an idea before the meet to try that.
“Blanca had her mind set and she prepared. She was in tip-top shape. As long as she could win the 880, I was OK with it. She was able to recover. She ran to exhaustion. She had a quick recovery time.”
D’hoedt was named as the WPIAL Championships MVP for her uncommon performance and achievement.
Jim Faiella, who was part of Chambers’ coaching staff, spent most of his time that year scouting opponents for the team and D’hoedt. He focused on opponents’ running styles and strategies.
He said D’hoedt winning the two-mile run came in a situation in which she and the team had anything to lose. The race set up perfectly for her.
“I don’t know that anyone would try that combination of races now,” Faiella said. “Blanca was a strong runner. Obviously, she was going to be tired. There wasn’t the same time element then as there is now.
“But in that race, nobody wanted the lead. The first six laps were very slow. I remember saying to Chambers, ‘With this pace, she has a real chance.’ Basically, it came down to the last couple of laps and Blanca just kicked it out like an 880, which she was so good at doing. It was a great performance.”
A performance that helped shape her life and build the necessary self-esteem to eventually overcome any challenge, obstacle or disappointment.
D’hoedt, who lives in Pleasant Garden, N.C., with her 13-year-old daughter, Gracie, and is married to John Erickson, did something no other female runner in the WPIAL has done.
It truly was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
“Our team needed the points,” said D’hoedt, in explaining the reason she ran that combination of races. “I wanted to help our team and Chambers convinced me I could win each race.
“I really didn’t think about what I was doing at the time. I didn’t look ahead, I ran the race and moved on to the next one. I just knew I had to do it.
“There was something magical about it,” she continued. “It was a nice day to run. It just felt right. I didn’t even feel that tired when it was all over. It was almost like I was in the zone athletes talk about. I just did what I knew and had worked on before. Then, to win the team championship, was just icing on the cake.”
She teamed with Elaine Sobansky and Gina Piatt, Trinity’s outstanding and accomplished field events tandem, to bring the title to the school.
D’hoedt’s journey to Washington and Trinity began in Paraguay, the native land of her mother, Connie. Her father, Albert, was born in Belgium. The family moved from Paraguay to England in 1962. Five years later, they immigrated to the United States on the Queen Mary.
“We came into New York Harbor,” D’hoedt recalled. “I was 7-years-old and I remember my dad brought my bike. I remember riding it all around the harbor where the boats came in while we waited for our paperwork to be completed. It seemed like forever but I had fun. I’m a real immigrant.”
D’hoedt and her five siblings settled in Washington as her father “struggled to get a good job.” He worked three jobs and her mother worked as well.
Albert D’hoedt died in 1990. Connie, 96, lives in Prosperity.
It wasn’t easy but the family made it and Blanca became a sports legend at Trinity.
“After that accomplishment my junior year, people looked at me differently,” she said. “People were proud of me and what I had done. It definitely boosted my self-esteem. I remember how great that felt.”
D’hoedt won two medals in the 1978 PIAA Championships, placing third in the 880 run and sixth in the mile. Trinity fell short of the state team title, placing second. Sobansky won the gold in the shot put and was sixth in the discus. Piatt was second in the discus, third in the shot put and fifth in the javelin.
Chambers wonders now if he should have pulled D’hoedt out of one of the races – the two-mile, to be specific – to give her a more realistic chance at winning a gold medal in one of the other two races.
“It was a mistake on my part,” Chambers said. “I look back and think I was being naive. It was too demanding. It was too much to do in a couple days. I never thought about it then.”
D’hoedt said she thought about not running in one of the races, almost dropping out of the two-mile.
“Running in all three killed me. It was hot. I was revved up but I was hurting,” she said.
In addition to her prowess on the track, D’hoedt was Trinity’s first female qualifier in the state cross country championship.
“She was a very determined young lady,” said Kris Tanner, Trinity’s former cross country coach and an assistant to Chambers. “She never gave in or gave up. She trained like crazy.
“In her mind there was no doubting she could accomplish what she ended up accomplishing.”
Everything pointed to an outstanding senior season in 1979 for D’hoedt but a devastating knee injury suffered in a basketball game late in the season left her with torn medial collateral ligaments. It ended her scholastic athletic career.
“It was horrible,” she said. “It was a game-changer in my life. I was at a different level of understanding of what life’s about. I went into a (month-long) depression wondering why this happened. It was a freak accident. I ripped my right knee apart and just laid there on the court screaming.
“I started going out, all the time, drinking and smoking. It was an escape. It wasn’t me. I still wanted to be able to run. I picked myself up by the by bootstraps and just said I wasn’t going to be depressed anymore. The partying was over.”
After D’hoedt had her knee reconstructed, she dealt with a cast that actually had her knee bent and right foot turned in. It was cumbersome and uncomfortable. One doctor told her it would be difficult for her to run again.
That statement motivated her. Enter Jack Rea, who at the time was athletic trainer at Washington and Jefferson College.
The summer after her graduation. D’hoedt would meet Rea at the college’s swimming pool each morning for workouts and rehabilitation.
“I have two titanium screws in my knee,” she said. “I was on crutches eight weeks. I could not believe how horrible my leg looked. When a doctor said I couldn’t put faith in ever running again, I just looked at him and told him that no one could tell me what I can and can’t do with my body.”
Rea offered his help.
“He trained me, rehabbed me and took care of me,” D’hoedt explained. “He never charged my family one penny. He just wanted to help.”
D’hoedt recovered and ended up at Slippery Rock State College, where she excelled.
She was part of a state championship 3,200-meter relay team and individually qualified for the nationals in the 800 meters. She earned a partial scholarship and credited her coach, Bill Lennox, for having faith in her and giving her an opportunity.
“It was brutal,” D’hoedt said of her comeback. “It hurt so bad. The great rehab by Mr. Rea and my own desire is what allowed me to run in college.
“(Rea) had me sit and push on my leg every day to straighten it out. There was a lot of screaming and yelling. It was a slow and brutal process. But the ligaments stretched an it straightened out.”
She was the NCAA Mideast Regional cross country champion for Slippery Rock in 1982 and earned All-America honors at the national championships.
After leaving Slippery Rock, she was a successful high school coach in cross country and track at various private schools. In 1987, she won the Atlanta half-marathon in course record time.
While she doesn’t run competitively, teach or coach full-time anymore, rather focusing on Gracie, an emerging distance runner, D’hoedt feels blessed.
“I put myself out there and trusted and counted on people,” she said. “I am blessed to have had people help to get me through tough things and times.
“I enjoy my time being a mom. I was 44-years-old when I had Gracie. She’s beautiful, wonderful and amazing. She has (running) talent. I am just loving watching her grow. When I think back on all these things in my life, it just makes me think. ‘Why was I the one?’ I’m just blessed.”