Mullen sisters help PU XC to 11th at NCAAs

Twins reunite for first trip to nationals

By: Justin Feil
   Caroline and Catha Mullen weren’t anywhere near each other this summer.
   It was a new experience for the identical twins who are juniors at Princeton University.
   "It was hard a little bit, but I think it was also a good experience," said Caroline, the older of the two by seven minutes. "We grew independently. We both grew up a lot. We were living on our own in two totally different places in the world. She was in Palo Alto, Calif., and I was 6,000 miles away in Paris working at the embassy. It was a good growing experience. It was sometimes lonely without Catha, but it’s great that we can go to school together. It made me appreciate the fact we do go to school together."
   The two have always been close. They were just minutes apart from birth. Even when the two are running for the PU women’s cross country team, they never get too far apart, though now it’s typically Catha that leads the two.
   Catha and Caroline Mullen joined together to help the Tigers finish 11th at the NCAA Championships on Monday in Terre Haute, Ind.
   "Caroline and I both made big steps this year," Catha said. "We both had good summers of training. That’s pretty much the secret to a good cross country season, having a good summer. We came in in good shape. The whole team really came in in good shape and progressed nicely through the season. This was such a fun cross country season. It’s unbelievable."
   Like a twin experiment, the Mullen sisters went to separate locations and did their summer training before reconvening at Old Nassau. Catha studied at Stanford while Caroline worked in France.
   "It was first time we were apart for that long," Catha said. "I missed having a training partner all the time. But we both got our work done."
   It made it that much better that the two were reunited for the team’s big finish. Catha was the Tigers’ second finisher, in 44th place among team runners, while Caroline was Princeton’s sixth finisher, in 144th place. Cack Ferrell led the Tigers by finishing 10th overall to garner All-America honors. Princeton finished two spots ahead of its 13th-place ranking going into the race and also topped Columbia, the team that defeated it for the Heptagonal Championship.
   "Our goals in the beginning of the year are pretty lofty," Catha said. "We have high expectations for ourselves. We’re hoping to be a Top-15 team all year. We knew that we’d be close to the Top 10 going in with a Top 13 ranking. That was our goal going in. We were very happy. It was such a thrilling moment. They were reading off the scores, going down backwards.
   "Beating Columbia, they are a huge rival of ours. They’ve beaten us at Heps. We’ve beaten them at NCAAs. We beat them by seven points which is just each girl passing one girl at the end."
   Making the Tigers’ accomplishment all the more impressive was the way the team delivered with the absence of Meredith Lambert. Lambert, an NCAA qualifier in the 10,000 meters outdoors, was discovered to have a heart condition that ruled her out of competition. That made the role of the Mullen sisters even more important.
   "The thing that was so impressive about this team is when Meredith went down, someone always stepped up," said Tiger head coach Peter Farrell. "Not only did Caroline move into the Top 7, Caroline dropped 45 seconds at Van Cortlandt Park to score. And Catha was close last year. She put in a world of training this summer and it paid off."
   In past seasons, the Mullens have both performed well at the end of seasons. But those endings had come at the ECAC Championships, a sort of consolation for those runners not selected for Princeton’s Top 7. Catha was the Tigers’ top finisher at the ECAC Championships as a freshman before serving as an alternate to last year’s nationals team; Caroline was their top ECAC finisher last year. This year, they both made the Top 7. While Catha was there from the start, Caroline had to work her way up to that level after starting the season well outside the Top 7.
   "For my summer training, I lived in Paris over the summer and it wasn’t ideal for running," Caroline said. "I fell back some. I was a little afraid I wasn’t in as good of shape as I wanted to be. At the same time, I was still in pretty good shape. Two months of base carried me through the season. I improved a lot based on the work I did in the preseason. Basically, it has to do with running with the team.
   "I was around 13th my first race, the Fordham Invitational. My time was OK. It was 19:17. The year before, I didn’t have a great cross country season. I improved a lot at the end of the season, so I guess I do generally do that. It’s an ideal way to run. For next year, though, I want to have a really, really solid base and not only improve throughout the season, but start out on a higher level just so when I get to NCAAs, I’ll be more competitive."
   But of the Mullen sisters are looking forward to the upcoming track seasons. Catha runs everything from the 800 to the 3,000 meters and Caroline also runs middle- to long-distance events. Only three seconds separated the two in the 3,000 last year.
   "I am really looking forward to track," Catha said. "I’ve always been more of fan of track. But this is the most fun season ever. Our team is just so great. I like cross country for the team aspect. It’s easier for the team to be really close. There’s only 25 people. In track, there’s 60 people and they all do different things."
   Both Caroline and Catha have plenty to build on after finishing their best cross country seasons to date. Having each other on the school team helps push each other to do their best.
   "It’s nice to always have a training partner and nice to have someone to encourage me," Caroline said. "Catha’s also a good model for me. Seeing Catha having such an amazing season, and breaking through, makes me think I can do it too. I know if I can do what Catha did over the summer, I’ll be able to step it up more."
   Added Catha, "We’ve never been competitive with each other, except to encourage each other to do better."
   The two will be pushing each other on the track through the winter and spring, and next fall they’ll be hoping to be front-runners for the Tigers as they try to reach nationals for a fourth straight year. It’s going to be tough to top this year’s 11th-place finish.
   "I’m euphoric," Farrell said. "Going in 13th and beating a lot of teams. We beat Columbia, a team that had our number early. We beat N.C. State and some other teams people never expected us to beat. It was terrific. And all the girls ran an intelligent race. They ran even splits in their first and second 3,000. That is the mark of a mature team."
   It will be tough to top that performance, but Catha and Caroline Mullen will set about training to accomplish that goal. It doesn’t matter where they train. They’ll be back together chasing lofty goals again next year.