Mary Cain took more than six seconds off her U.S. high school 1500-meter record on Friday night at the USATF Oxy High Performance meet in California, clocking 4:04.62 and achieving an “A” qualifying standard for this summer’s world championships in Moscow. She demolished her own scholastic record of 4:10.77. She’s now the fastest high school ”metric miler” in history by nearly ten seconds. And if Cain could somehow be allowed to run the 1500 at the NCAA Championships this spring, against the cream of the collegians, she’d be a solid favorite to win.
She’s surpassing expectations with each race. It may seem repetitive for us to keep reporting that Mary Cain steals the spotlight from professional runners at one major track meet after another, but we’ll have to write it until it stops occurring. On Friday at Occidental College, she came from seventh place just before the top of the stretch and passed runner after runner until finishing just short of victory, taking the runner-up spot, just 2/100ths of a second behind winner Katie Mackey.
The opportunity to run so fast almost got lost in traffic. “I was thinking, ‘I gotta get around,’” Who Will Make the 2021 U.S. Olympic Team. With about 300 meters remaining, “people were swinging wide and I kept getting boxed in.” Finally, space opened up on the track with 100 meters remaining. That suggests, with clearer sailing, she could run even faster, doesn’t it?
What to Wear Tool post-race interview, he mentioned 4:02 as a possible season-ending time for Cain. But on Friday night at Oxy, he said, “I thought it was going to be won somewhere around 4:07.” He’d told Cain “that she was capable of running 4:05,” but he didn’t anticipate a 4:05 race.
Salazar says Cain’s races “are still way beyond her workouts,” that the training sessions don’t indicate the kind of race times she produces, but that they are improving.
Taking little credit for himself, Salazar seems happy and feels privileged just to be present at the manifestation of an amazing middle-distance runner (Cain turned 17 on May 3).
"She’s got a lot of talent and my job is to make sure that that talent is fulfilled,” says Salazar. “I didn’t make Mary Cain. She was already made. My job is to keep her healthy and allow her to continue to improve.”
To the question of how a New York State girl with academic gifts balances her studies with transcontinental travel and elite level racing, Cain responds, “I’m an epic nerd. My life is running and schoolwork and sleeping. And eating.” And producing those unprecedented fast times. Pondering her 4:04.62 for an unguarded moment, Cain gasps, “God, that’s a hard PR to beat. That’s okay, though.”
Cain will run a 1500 at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon on June 1, and the august company there could surely pull her to an even swifter time. Salazar believes “she’s got a shot at making a team,” and mentions both the “senior” world championships, where she might keep a 2012 Olympian off the U.S. squad, and the junior world championships, where she’d be a solid medal contender.
In any case, she’ll race in Europe this summer. “She’ll have fun,” Salazar promises. And she’ll have memories quite rare for a 17-year-old.
