■ Katie Crabb, the Pac-10’s
leading 1,500 meter
runner, hopes to end her
career as a champion
By Jeff Smith
Oregon Daily Emerald
Odds are you’ve seen her run
ning around campus.
Maybe you saw the 5-foot-10
senior running in place at the
stoplight by Burger King, waiting
to cross the street.
Or perhaps you noticed her as
she cruised by the 7-11 store on
13th and Alder.
You might have seen her
blonde ponytail whiz by you as
you walked in the direction of
McArthur Court.
It is likely you’ve seen the Ore
gon women’s track team’s most
experienced member some
where, because she’s constantly
out there running.
“Oh yeah, I’m always running
around,” said Crabb, as she stretch
es on the floor of the Bowerman
Lounge. “Everyone is always like,
‘Oh I saw you running!’ And I’m
like, ‘Yeah, I run... a lot.
“And I live just around here, so
on all of my runs, it seems like I
see at least five people I know.”
Of course there is a motive be
hind her daily jogs. The Chico,
Calif., native wants to be the best
runner possible. It is this disci
pline that has positioned her as
the favorite to capture the Pacific
10 Conference Championship in
the 1,500 meters this weekend at
Hayward Field.
“I can’t wait for this weekend,”
Crabb said. “You can’t beat hav
ing the Pac-10 Championships at
home at Hayward Field. And I
have a shot at the title, so we’ll
see.”
But before we go on and on
about her chance to win that Pac
10 title, let’s rewind a bit back to
the fall. All the way back to the
Oregon women cross country’s
season opening race on Sept. 25.
It was during that race, the
Clackamas Open, that Crabb first
began to notice a serious problem
with her Achilles tendon. Near
the two-mile mark she stepped
off the course because of the ag
gravation in her heel. She did not
finish the race.
This was not the way she envi
sioned the beginning of her year.
Especially not after being the
team’s top returnee from the pre
vious year’s NCAA Cross Country
Championships.
“That first race, I was halfway
through, and was like, ‘This is not
OK. I’m not going to ruin my sea
son for this race,”’ Crabb said.
The next week Crabb admitted
she was “very stubborn” in at
tempting to run at the Notre
Dame Invitational on Oct. 1. With
one mile to go in the race, she was
in line for fifth place before her
taped ankle cut off her blood cir
culation. She was forced to slow
down and finished 46th.
Running had always come so
naturally to her
and then sud
denly, she was
being re
strained from
doing what she
loved. She had
two full weeks
to rest and prepare for the Pre
NCAAs.
She gutted it out through the
opening parts of the race with the
Achilles problem coming into ef
fect. But then came the incident
that shows the bond Crabb has
with her veteran coach Tom
Heinonen.
As Heinonen said back in Oc
tober:
“Katie somehow saw me in the
crowd and mouthed, ‘It hurts a
lot.’ I hadn’t seen her until that
point, and I pulled her out of the
race when I did.”
Crabb certainly didn’t want to
drop out of another race, but she
resp,ected Heinonen. The two
share a common respect for each
other. It is evident listening to
them speak.
“She’s very determined,”
Heinonen said. “She knows what
she has to do, and she works hard
to achieve her goals.”
“Tom knows the ins and outs
of running,” Crabb said. “He
knows everything. There’s not a
better coach in my mind. I trust
that the workouts he gives me
will help me.”
Which is why she didn’t mind
as much going through the inten
sive rehabilitation water work
outs in the fall. But that doesn’t
mean that she enjoyed it.
“With my Achilles in the tank,
that put me in the water,” said
Crabb, emphasizing the word
“water” with a backward rolling
of her eyes. “Anyone who has
been injured and had to go in the
water can relate to how miserable
it is.”
Crabb proceeds to describe this
“12-by-eight-foot square water
hole” that she ran in every day for
a full month.
“It’s really hard to stay positive,
and you just have to make a huge
effort and say, ‘OK, I’m going to get
through this,’” Crabb said. “It’s not
much for kicks and giggles.
“Overall, it was a bummer of a
fall. But now it’s track season and
I’m making up for it.”
And she most certainly is. Dur
ing the course of the spring she
won the 800 at the Washington
Dual and picked up her personal
Turn to Crabb, page7C
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