Duo help Cornell win Heps, reach NCAAs
By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
Four years after Katie and Caroline Kellner shared in a special day at the Mercer County Championship in their first season running together, the sisters experienced déjà vu at the Ivy League Heptagonals.
The West Windsor-Plainsboro High South graduates celebrated their first season back together with Katie winning the individual title at the West Windsor Fields course off Washington Rd., and Caroline the fifth finisher, 15th overall, for Cornell University’s women’s cross country team that cruised to the Heps team title.
”That was the first thing we said after the race — ‘This is just like my senior year at the Mercer County Championship,’” said Katie, the Big Red senior that ran 20:28.5 for the 6,000-meter course. “I was able to win and my sister stepped up and was able to score.
”It was the same experience, but even better. We’re at a higher level. It’s so great to be a part of it and come through it. It’s great we were able to experience that success together.”
The Kellners have gotten together every summer since Katie’s graduation for some training, but they hadn’t run on the same team since 2009.
”It’s pretty much the same,” said Caroline, a freshman for Cornell. “She’s still there as a role model, and there’s other girls on the team also. It’s fun to be running with her again.”
To share in an Ivy League title together in their first season reunited was special for both of them. They enjoyed the Homecoming that was just across Rt. 1 from where they began running for WW-P South.
”That was the perfect day,” Caroline said. “Having my high school teammates and high school coaches and people from the town there and being familiar with the course, it was exciting. That course is where I had my first high school practice ever. It was very symbolic.
”It was very similar to Mercer Counties. When I crossed the line, I had to ask who won. I was so excited for her.”
The two helped to bring another level of success to Cornell this season. The Big Red had won the Heps by only one point in 2011, and they just missed an at-large bid for the NCAA Championship.
With both in the fold, the Big Red won Heps handily, finished third at the NCAA Northeast Regional and advanced to Cornell’s first NCAA title meet since 2001. Katie earned All-America with her 36th place finish and Caroline was their fifth finisher, 171st overall, as the Big Red placed 13th in the country.
”My freshman year, we didn’t even talk about making the national meet,” Katie said. “That wasn’t even mentioned. Sophomore year, we started to think about it, that it would be cool to make the national meet. Junior year, we wanted it so badly and we just missed it. We were the first team to not make it. A lot has changed over the last four years. Our team has grown incredibly.”
Adding Caroline this year was a boost to the team. They helped to contribute to one of the brightest seasons in program history.
”It’s been so fun,” said Cornell women’s distance coach Artie Smith. “We’ve really enjoyed working with Katie through the years. She’s been an important part of program. Being able to add Caroline, being able to see them enjoy the special season we had together, it’s been so fun.”
Smith has watched Katie develop into a standout. She holds the school’s 10,000-meter track record, and she’s led the Big Red cross country for much of the last two seasons. This year, she was the team’s top finisher in all but two races.
”She’s had high goals always and she’s passionate about the sport,” Smith said. “One of the reasons I loved to recruit Katie and Caroline is they really cared about the team. Katie has been tremendous about lifting the aspirations for the team. She has such big goals that it raises the whole team.”
Caroline surprised herself, her sister, her coaches and her team with her consistency and performances.
”I was unbelievably impressed,” Smith said. “We had a very good team last year and essentially returned the whole group. We won Heps last year and were a heartbeat from NCAAs, so it’s pretty unlikely that any freshman would make that lineup.
”She was so accomplished in high school and cares so much about the sport. It’s a credit to her and her belief that team stuff is so important. She put herself in position. She did it in every single meet this season. What’s hard for freshman to do is to find that consistency. Even though your sister is on the team and you know a lot of people, it’s hard to handle.”
Katie had spent part of the summer trying to work with Caroline on the core strength and lifting that would make a difference in her freshman year more than running with her. Caroline was the second freshman finisher overall at Heps and a valuable member of the Big Red in her first year.
”I was really impressed,” Katie said. “I thought she was going to have difficulty making our top 7. Not only did she make the top 7, the majority of meets she was scoring in the top five. And she was able to do all the workouts. My freshman season went downhill at end of the season. That didn’t happen to her. She stayed strong all the way through.”
Said Caroline: “I am really excited about the first season. It was so much more than I could have hoped for. It’s just really fun to be on a college team. I feel like we achieved a lot this season.”
Joining a collegiate team helped Caroline to make a jump as an individual this year. No longer the best on her team, she was pulled along to some impressive results.
”I feel just having more girls to run with, it makes practice harder, but easier because more people are around you,” Caroline said. “You run faster. The workouts are done at faster paces.”
Katie, too, has seen steady progress in her career at Cornell. She’s at the top of the Ivy League in distance runners after her climb during her tenure.
”I’m really happy with it,” Katie said. “I look at people I’m able to run competitively with now. A lot of these people were running faster than me. I know I’ve progressed through the rankings in the United States. And in track, I’ve gotten faster every season, which not everyone can say.”
The Kellners are enjoying their year together. They have been able to celebrate historical achievements with the team, yet there remains plenty of space to go their own ways. They saw plenty of each other at practices, but lived on opposite sides of the campus and kept their own set of friends and interests.
”I thought it was going to be really strange initially to have her up in Ithaca with my coach, my teammates, people I consider my friends,” said Katie, who has fulfilled the pre-medicine requirements as a Human Biology and Health and Society major. “I feel like it was less of a shock than I expected. She fit in naturally and it felt like she had always been there.
”It’s nice to have family with you. We go to brunch after church every Sunday and catch up. It’s nice to have someone similar to you and has similar background to you.”
It didn’t take long for the Cornell women’s cross country team to see the benefits of having the sisters on the same team, and realize the same sort of benefits that WW-P South did four years ago.
”They have so much in common,” Smith said. “They’re terrific students and really love running. They’re really different at the same time. They have different personalities and they bring different things to practice every day. That’s been neat too. It’s not two identical people. They have their own things to add.”

