Joins area trio in Meet of Champions
By: Justin Feil
It only took a couple of weeks of preseason for Melinda Neff to realize that Katie Kellner was going to be a pretty good runner for the West Windsor-Plainsboro South girls’ cross country team.
In fact, Neff, the Pirates’ first-year coach, realized it only a little before Kellner, a freshman who had done well as a middle-school runner, realized it. Kellner wasn’t sure what to expect of her first year of high school cross country, but got a good idea about it when she was the Pirates’ top finisher in their first race of the season. She never gave up her spot all season.
"I definitely thought it would be a lot of fun," Kellner said. "I didn’t necessarily think I’d be as good as I am. It’s probably more fun than I expected."
Winning, she admits, does help but she’d be just as happy as a middle-of-the-pack runner for the Pirates, a team that has welcomed her wholeheartedly.
"I think the cross country team is one of the closest teams in the school," Kellner said. "That makes it fun."
Many of her teammates have continued to train with her through this week and they will be on hand to root on Kellner as she caps quite a season by running in the Meet of Champions 10 a.m. Saturday at Holmdel Park as an individual qualifier. Kellner will be joined in the race by Montgomery High senior Eleonora Spinazzi, while WW-P South boys’ individuals Joe Ennis and Brian Leung will run in the boys’ championship that begins at 10:45 a.m.
"From the very beginning of August, I was hoping Katie would make the Meet of Champions," Neff said. "I couldn’t drop her mileage too quickly because we needed her to still have her base. We’ve had basically a month of championship meets. This is the fourth straight week.
"I think she was ready to go for it. She was ready for a month of heavy competition. She’s quite a competitor and a gifted athlete. She worked hard at learning to pace herself in the first half of the season. I think she was ready to let loose. At counties, you could see by her smile how satisfied she was with her performance."
Kellner is looking to keep smiling as she finishes her first year of high school cross country. She’s hoping to improve for a fourth straight week after last week running 19 minutes, 19 seconds.
"I sure hope I can," she said. "My goal is to break that time. I seem to be consistent with that. Maybe 19:15, maybe break it by a couple seconds."
Her championship run opened as she finished second at the Mercer County Championships in a personal best for the Veterans Park course. A week later, she was second at the Central Jersey Group IV meet in 19:20 a full 39 seconds faster than she covered the Holmdel course at the Shore Coaches Invitational early in the season. Last Saturday, Kellner proved to be consistent as she recorded 19:19 for the same course again to place seventh. The time was the 17th best run out of all Groups last Saturday though Kellner explains her improvement from Shore Coaches to now quite simply.
"It was definitely a lot of practice in between and a lot of meets," she said. "It was a good month. There was a lot of practice every day. The team is always there. They’re supportive."
The Pirates will be cheering for Kellner to continue her improvement, which seems entirely possible if she doesn’t get too caught up in hoopla surrounding the Meet of Champions.
"I want her to approach it the same way," Neff said. "I’m looking for it to be a continuation. That being said, I’m really pushing for Katie to go out some place in the front pack and hopefully place in the Top 20. If you look at what she’s been able to run in the second half of season when her times began to drop, she’s entirely capable of placing in the top 20.
"We trained through about the first half of the season. The only meet we didn’t train through was the Hopewell meet. We didn’t cut mileage down for any of the other meets. We ran mileage on top of the meets and didn’t start to drop it until right before counties."
Kellner’s county race in which she led for the majority of the race helped her prepare for the tougher competition at the sectionals and Group meets. Helping the Pirates repeat as county champions was a highlight for the season, and the race helped spur her on to bigger things and better times in the state meets.
"I felt more confident because I felt like, if I was that good at counties I could do well at sectionals too," Kellner said. "It definitely helped a little bit."
Also helping Kellner’s confidence level is the fact that this will be her fourth time racing the Holmdel course, and third straight week on it. This time when she runs it, she’ll be joined by the top runners in the state. She’s been getting used to facing better competition each week.
"I have been getting a little more nervous," Kellner said. "The people running are getting better and better. I’m just going out there hoping to improve my own personal time, not worrying about the place. I try to keep a good pace and go for a good time."
So far this season, Kellner has been full of good times and in recent weeks she’s lowered her finish times each time she has run. Kellner came into the season after never running better than a 20-minute 5k road race. Now, she’s running in the low 19-minute range on slower cross country surfaces and looking for one more week of improvement in a meet that she views as a bonus.
"It’s not like this meet is all that important for the team," she said. "It’s just to see where you fit in. I’m definitely going to push my hardest to get my best time to finish out the season and be happy with myself."
That approach has helped her to quite a first year of high school running. It’s no surprise to Neff, who knew early on that Katie Kellner was something special.
"Katie is just a solid, dependable athlete who comes to practice every day, works her hardest and who performs well in stressful situations," Neff said. "That’s really impressive as a freshman. The coach never has to worry about the stress of a meet and the anxiety of a big meet. It doesn’t affect her running. She’s a natural athlete and she has quiet confidence. Sometimes I forget she’s a freshman."

