Holy Trinity's (Hicksville, N.Y.) Colleen Schmidt finished in second place wit ha time of 10:25.22 in the 3200 meters to earn All-America honors at the New Balance Indoor Nationals at the Armory Track and Field Center in New York City. The Duke-bound senior's time was a CHSAA and Holy Trinity record. Cornwall's Aisling Cuffe won the race with a time of 9:56.86.
"It just feels like a dream come true, I was just going into this race thinking that I wanted to end this season well and just get prepared for spring which I knew I'd be much healthier for. During the race it seemed like the laps were going be so slow and with each lap I was thinking oh man I can't keep going, but this is the first race this season that I just told myself to be quiet and just run." Schmidt said, "I told myself it's okay to be dead at the end and to be completely exhausted and to even throw up, because that means that I'd run my hardest and I think it's safe to safe I definitely felt that way when I finished. I'm just ecstatic, I finished my season in a way I never would have thought possible."
Holy Trinity girls track coach Justin Renna was impressed with Schmidt's race. "Colleen's race was fantastic," Renna said. "She has worked long and hard to come back from an injury-plagued season to become one of the top distance runners in the country."
During the race Schmidt stayed with pack running about 40 seconds per 200 meters. She was able to stay with this pack until the final 400 meters when she pulled away, running a 1:13 final 400 meters to take second place.
This followed the strategy coach given to her by Holy Trinity distance coach Jim Muller. "Colleen's strategy was much as it had been the week before at states; stay back early on if the pace was fast, which it was, and run consistent splits to stay in contact with the lead pack," Muller said. "The difference between this weekend and last weekend was that Colleen maintained her pace in the middle laps. This allowed her to reel in the entire field with the exception of Cuffe."
Muller also enjoyed Schmidt's performance. "While I was excited by her performance, I was not as surprised by it as some of the others," Muller said. "Colleen has been progressing very well over the past month. Our focus since the end of cross country has been to get ready for the end of winter and use that as a springboard for the spring season."
Schmidt and the rest of the Holy Trinity track team return to the track in early April for the spring season.
"This spring I'm looking forward to defend my titles at the cities and beat my meet record in the 3000m at that meet. I'm also excited to be running at the Penn Relays which I have never done before. Now that I'm finally strong and healthy again, I just want to end my high school career with a bang." Schmidt said.
