Nov. 23, 2009
By: Scott Kemps, Auburn Media Relations
AUBURN, Ala. Cross country, indoor track, and outdoor track are unlike any sport out there. When not racing, running, throwing or jumping, or warming up to do one of the four, you spend most of your time supporting your teammates, socializing with each other as well as other athletes. For some it is just a way to pass the time, for others, it is something more. For Scott Novack and Laurel Pritchard, it is a relationship that went from high school athletes, to boyfriend and girlfriend, to Auburn Tigers, to engaged, and in June, to married.
"We first met at King of the Mountain, which is a track meet held at Vestavia Hills, Laurel's high school, in our sophomore year," explains Novack, who attended rival Hoover High School. "She was there cleaning up after the meet, and my teammate and I invited her out to get pizza."
Pritchard couldn't go, but the invitation opened the door to a strange twist. You see, if Scott Novack wasn't such a poor match-maker, he wouldn't be engaged like he is today.
"After that, we didn't really talk for awhile, but I ended up setting-up my best friend to take her to our junior prom. That obviously didn't go anywhere, and a few months after that, we started dating each other in June of 2004."
When the couple first started dating heading into Novack's senior year and Pritchard's junior year, it began as a typical high school relationship. That soon changed as many high school relationships do, as Novack was being recruited by several schools, Auburn included.
"We both decided that we would just let things play out, and let whatever happens happen," said Novack.
Novack chose Auburn, and the pair continued to date during his injury-redshirt season at Auburn and Pritchard's senior year at Vestavia Hills.
Following her senior year, it was then Pritchard's decision, a highly sought after runner in her own right, to choose her school.
"I took all of my visits and looked at other places, but I knew Auburn was the place for me," said Pritchard of her decision to attend Auburn. The two continued dating while at Auburn, and eventually saw other challenges that many college athletes face.
Novack, a chemical engineering major, took a familiar path for most collegiate athletes, in taking fewer credit hours and stretching a four-year degree into five in order to focus more on track.
"Twelve credit hours, especially in chemical engineering, to go along with the track seasons is more than enough," said Novack of his academic requirements. Pritchard, a nutrition major and a fourth-year senior, was on a similar path until the indoor SEC Championships during her junior year.
"The intention was for me to redshirt indoor track last season, meaning I would have been here an extra semester, but it worked out that the team needed me for the SEC Championships and they lifted my redshirt, putting us on schedule to leave here at the same time."
On Valentine's Day of 2008, only a few weeks after the SEC Indoor Championship, Novack and Pritchard found themselves separated as Novack was at an away track meet for the holiday. Scott's absence prompted Laurel to invite her sister Grace, who was then a high school senior, and now a freshman on this year's team, to come visit and keep her big sister company on a holiday that couples are meant to be together. "She came up, and we basically had ourselves a pity party. It was fantastic," said a joking Pritchard.
Since he was away for Valentine's Day, Novack promised that he would schedule a "make-up" Valentine's Day the following weekend.
"I was pumped," said Pritchard. "I got new shoes, and was just excited because when Scott is in track season, he is in track season. That is the main focus and I wouldn't of thought of him doing something like this."
When the two were in high school, they would walk around each other's respective home tracks, a fitting date for a pair that spent most of their time there anyways. The make-up date began with a ritzy dinner at a local Auburn restaurant, Christopher's, Novack played a card from the pairs high school roots, Auburn style, suggesting that the two take a stroll around Auburn's Hutsell-Rosen Track. Little did Pritchard know that she was about to get engaged.
"We started just walking around the track, talking like we used to do. Then we got to the finish line, and he told me to turn around. I was just thinking to myself, this is really weird! When I turned back around, he had "marry me" in lights up on the hill. He then got down on one knee, and asked me to marry him!"
She said yes, and the pair have been planning for a June 26 wedding since last year, with Pritchard, as expected, doing a majority of the work.
"She knows, I refuse to do anything that can be distracting during the season," said Novack. "I have nationals on Nov. 23, I'm not going to sit around and be like "what type of cake are we going to get?"
While Novack isn't worried about what cake they will have at the wedding for the time being, he is worried mainly about his final NCAA Championship race on Monday, a race that his fiancé will be attending.
"The entire girls team went last year as well, I hear it is going to be pretty cold there!" said Pritchard of the weather at NCAA Nationals in Terre Haute, Ind. On Nov. 23.
Luckily for Pritchard and Novack, June weddings in Auburn figure to be a bit warmer.