Swift Simmons to defend 800 title for women's track

Some athletes seem born for the limelight, destined from birth to lead groups of equally talented people to monumental achievments. They announce their presence and accomplishments with an air of self-importance, the assupmtion that they are the best by birthright.

At this weekend's Heptagonal Championships, however, the women's track team will look to a very different type of person for leadership.

Junior Lauren Simmons, the Tigers' middle distance runner who is equal parts unassuming and dominating in her event, will look to defend her 2000 Heps title in the 800 while trying to spark the team as a whole to a solid performance.

Simmons' unexpected win last year marked the culmination of a maturation process that was the theme of her first few years at Princeton.

"She wasn't quite ready for college-level training," head coach Peter Farrell said. "It took her most of her freshman year to adjust, which is not uncommon."

Though renowned for her accomplishments as a middle distance runner, Simmons began her career on the track as a sprinter.

"In high school I ran the 100 and 200 and just kept moving up and by senior year I was running the 400 and 800," Simmons said.

The ambitious competitor came to Princeton with a slightly different mindset from that of a distance runner, however.

"I wanted to be a pentathlete when I came here," Simmons said. "I did the pentathalon in high school. I would do all the events and then run the 800 as fast as I could — last in the shot put, last in the high jump and then run a good 800."

She eventually found her niche concentrating on the 800, both as an individual and on relay teams.

"She's a very classy competitor," Farrell said, "both in the way she trains and in the way she races."

This class expresses itself at times as a somewhat naive humility; despite her success, Simmons still seems genuinely shocked by some of her accomplishments and enthusiastic about her potential. The clearest example of this part of her personality is the description she offers of last year's 800 at Heps.

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"It was a tough race, really close, and then when I won it was a suprise," Simmons said. "That race made me realize I could be competitive here."

Despite her slight lack of experience at the time compared to some of her competitors, Simmons led for the duration — including the closing sprint, which lasted the whole second 400 of the race.

Her tendency to run negative splits (when the second lap is faster than the first) creates some unexpected practice situations for Simmons and her Tiger teammates.

"I'm actually really bad at pacing," Simmons said. "The younger girls are usually leading me."

Practice habits aside, Simmons is unquestionably a leader for Princeton, one the team has looked to all season for big performances.

"She's a keynote performer for us," Farrell said. "She's almost like a stopper in baseball. It's nice to have that ace that we can send out there," Farrell added, comparing Simmons to a dominant starting pitcher, charged with halting losing streaks.

With Princeton hosting Heps this weekend, Simmons will have a rare opportunity to defend her crown on friendly ground. For many, this chance to display their skills in front of a home crowd might be somewhat overwhelming, pushing thoughts of the team competition out of focus.

While the individual 800 is certainly on Simmons' mind going into the meet, the possiblilties for the team seem to be foremost in her thoughts.

"We're going in as the underdogs, but I want our team to do really well," Simmons said. "I think we can surprise people."

"I want to do well in the 800, obviously," Simmons said, "but I want our relay teams to do well, too."

With only a few days before such an important meet, both Simmons and her coach seem to be taking a relatively low-key, though certainly not a lazy, approach to this weekend's competition.

"You don't want to create a situation where she feels pressure," Farrell said. "I think she'll do fine."

Even if Lauren Simmons would never brag about it herself, her coach's prediction is probably accurate.