Cain Giving Chase to History
By Brett Hoover, Armory Track
Saturday's New Balance Games bring together the best of the high schoolers as well as some sensational elite fields. Yet the headliner will be a high school junior phenom who will be trying to beat the elites.
Mary Cain of Bronxville, N.Y. — who ran a show-stopping 9:02.10 for 3000 meters recently in Seattle — will be gunning for a long-time national high school indoor Mile record of 4:38.5 set by Debbie Heald of La Mirada, Calif., more than 40 years ago (March 17, 1972 in Richmond, Va.).
That is the oldest remaining national high school girls' record, indoor or outdoor. Gerry Lindgren's indoor two-Mile mark — established in 1964 — is the only older indoor standard.
Cain, 16, certainly faces a challenging field. Tennessee graduate Sarah Brown (New Balance) is both an NCAA Champion at this distance and ran on World and American record relays. Australian Genevieve LaCaze (New Balance) represented her homeland in the steeplechase at the London Olympics. Nicole Sifuentes (Saucony), a graduate of the University of Michigan, has run at IAAF World Championships for Canada. Add to that field the likes of Heather Wilson (NJ-NY TC), Cat Beck (Central Park TC) and Renee Tomlin (NJ-NY TC) and this race has the makings of something very special.
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