She was one of the only distance competitors still running around the outside of the track.
Heather O'Brien's event, the daunting, 15-lap 3,000 meter run was long over, and relay teams were sprinting on the carpet of the Indoor Track and Tennis Center.
O'Brien was easy to spot: carefully staying on the outside of the tape, and ducking beneath it to complete countless semi-circle laps after finishing second in her first ever collegiate indoor track event.
That work ethic is becoming commonplace for the DePauw women's track team's newest phenomenon.
O'Brien, after placing 16th in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III cross country regional in November, began her indoor track career in a flurry Friday evening during the Tiger Small College Indoor Invitational. She rushed to the lead in the opening laps, but was overtaken by Hillary Cain, a sophomore from Franklin College, who passed her on the fifth lap, and held the lead for good.
"I could hear (Cain) right on my heels, then she got in front of me for a few laps, and that made me feel better knowing where she was," O'Brien said. "Then she started getting further and further away, and the last few laps she really started to kick it in and she got me by three seconds."
The freshman from Indianapolis, Ind., finished second in 10 minutes, 31.40 seconds, and was proud of her first effort on the collegiate track scene.
"It was close the whole way, and it just gives me a good competition for the future," she said.
O'Brien is coming off her first ever cross country season, where her success surprised not only the conference, but herself.
Originally recruited to DePauw to play tennis, O'Brien missed qualifying for the NCAA championships by just one place, but in the process, impressed head coach Kori Stoffregen with an apparent passion for the sport, which she only competed in her senior year at Bishop Chatard High School.
"She just trains really hard," Stoffregen said. "What happens outside of races is what makes her special. I think ultimately she's just so mentally tough and competitive, and we just need to tweak all the other things."
She's taking her same focus and drive she became known for on grass, to the track.
"They're both extremely mentally tough," O'Brien said about cross country and indoor track. "But what's important is just locking in. You have to forget about the number of laps... It's more mentally challenge just staying in it for the whole time."
What she likes about the track is there are no hills, but the small, oval track is more technical than first glance.
"It's harder to gain on somebody because there are so many straightaways," she said. "Once (Cain) got ahead of me a little bit, I just thought I would keep my pace and for the past few laps maybe I could gain on her a little bit. I let her slip away a little too much."
Stoffregen wasn't too concerned with O'Brien's finish.
In fact, it's right where he expected her.
"Sometimes getting beat early isn't a bad thing," Stoffregen said. "Sometimes it sparks a little bit more fire. She's right on course for what we have planned for her.
"We still view Heather as a long-term project. We'll see the best from her later rather than earlier because she's so new to the start."
The DePauw track teams host the DePauw Invitational on Saturday.