Catherine Casey smashes personal record in 5k at Stanford Invitational

The date is Feb. 7, 1995. Casey, a freshman at Columbia High School in New Jersey, walks on to the indoor track team. Casey, at the time primarily interested in field hockey and lacrosse, has decided to run only at the urging of several of her good friends.

The date is March 31, 2002. Catherine Casey, Princeton Univer-sity senior, crosses the finish line in 14th after running the 5k at the Stanford Invitational. Her time is a personal-record 16:33, smashing her previous PR by almost 30 seconds, and provisionally qualifying her for the 5k NCAA Tournament in March.

"People were there from all over, it was so exciting to be there. It was night, and all the lights were on, and all the fans were real distance fans," she said.

Casey had never run the 5k in a competition before.

"People were there from all over, it was so exciting to be there. It was night, and all the lights were on, and all the fans were real distance fans," she said.

What happened during those mysterious seven years? How did a lacrosse player develop into one of Princeton's best runners?

It all started in New Jersey.

Originally from Maplewood, NJ, Casey discovered running almost by chance. Trying out on her school's indoor track team on a whim, she was surprised to find that she loved it. She loved it so much, in fact, that when lacrosse season came around in the spring, she decided to go out for outdoor track instead.

"My role on the [field hockey] team basically had me running up and down the field the whole game, so it felt pretty natural, I guess," said Casey.

In her four years at Columbia High School, Casey attained an impressive 12 varsity letters; four in indoor track, four in outdoor track, one in field hockey, and three in cross country, for which she quit field hockey starting her sophomore year. Primarily running distance, Casey nonetheless had a spot on her school's national champion 4x800m relay team.

"We had a really good high school program," said Casey. "It was mainly centered around middle distance, though, so during track I was pretty much the distance girl for the team. I was really lucky, though, to come from such a great program. My coach was pretty smart, so I didn't burn out on running in high school."

Despite the preparation that her high school provided, coming to Princeton was still a huge leap. The team captain that year, Heather Onuma, provided her with a lot of support and motivation, as did the presence of her parents.

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"They were both the ones in high school who would come to the meets that no one else would come to," said Casey. "I'd be like, 'It's a tiny meet, nobody else's parents are coming, please don't worry about it,' and they'd show up anyway."

As recently as last weekend, Casey's father flew all the way from Hong Kong to watch her run at the aforementioned Stanford Invitational. Casey's incredible performance there represented a big step forward in her running. Previously never having run in either a 5k or been to the NCAAs, Casey may now do just that if her season performances continue to measure up to such an auspicious first meet.

As for her intended career post-Princeton, Casey, a sociology major, has general plans, but nothing specific. She will go to Africa for a year as part of Princeton-In-Africa to help set up sports programs for local children, and will likely go to law school upon her return, but after that she's keeping her options open. The rest of her final season as a Tiger and finishing up her senior thesis occupy enough of her time already. Casey's senior thesis is about how incarceration impacts the relationship between a father and his children. She interviews ex-offenders through the non-profit Osbourne Association.

Regardless of her future decision, Casey intends to savor her last season.

"It's hard to say how much all the girls on the team have meant to me, I couldn't really single any one or two of them out," said Casey. "I've tried to help them out and motivate them like a lot of the seniors on my first few teams did."

And now, with her running at the highest level it's been at in twelve seasons at Princeton, it looks like Casey is reaping the rewards.