Princeton, NJ - It's one of the oldest cliches in sports, "Go out on top!" Many kids dream of hitting the game winning shot, the walk off home run and walking away from their sport as a champion. But as so many of us realize as we get older and see our careers come to a close that dream ending only happens for a very few. As we arrived at Weaver Stadium on the Princeton University campus this afternoon we were seeing the career of one of the greatest Marist athletes come to a close.
For the past four years we watched as Senior Kristen Traub helped to rewrite the records books and take the women's cross country and track programs to new heights. When we start to go over the greatest moments in the programs history you will find that Traub had a hand in many of them. Today's race at the ECAC Championships would be Traub's last chance to leave her mark on a program that she had given so much of herself for the past four years.
"When we talked before the race I told her that today I wanted her to run this race for herself," Head Women's XC Coach Chuck Williams said. "She had nothing left to prove to me and I wanted her to go out and just run the race for purity of the competition. To finish her career on her terms and for herself." The conditions at the track were cold and windy, not your typical weather for early May. These conditions led to a very tactical race and one that kept the runners bunched closely until the last few laps.
"As each lap went by and no one was willing to make the big move to break the race open, I knew it was playing right into Kristen's strength. Over her career she always showed that she could close well in any race and I knew that as long as she was in the lead pack she could close the deal," said Williams. The tactical race allowed Traub to make a big move with 300m remaining to move up on the on the leaders and ultimately surge past them to become the program's first ever ECAC Outdoor Track champion and a new school record. It was the prefect ending for a storied career.
On what this day meant for Traub she had this to say, "It was an honor to be able to see the name Marist at the top of the results on the scoreboard. Today's race was the perfect way to end my four years as a Marist Red Fox and its great to see my hard work pay off. I can't wait to see what the Marist running program does in the future." It was the ending that all kids dream of, to walk off as a champion and it will truly be a day that Kristen Traub won't soon forget.
