St. Peter’s College runner Kopacz, a virtual newcomer to the sport, becomes first at school to compete in indoor nationals
Katie Kopacz was a three-sport standout while attending Holy Family Academy in Bayonne, but none of those sports happened to be track and field. Kopacz was a fine All-County soccer player who also earned accolades in basketball and softball at the all-girls Parochial school.
But during all that time, she never once considered running.
"I got recruited in college for soccer," Kopacz said. "I never ran at all."
So Kopacz headed to St. Peter’s College to play soccer, joining her brother, Ken, who was already a member of the SPC baseball team.
One day, while Kopacz was running on a treadmill in Yanitelli Center’s training facility, a school official asked Kopacz if she had ever considered trying out for the school’s track team.
"I said, ‘All right,’ " Kopacz said. "I never ran competitively, but I was willing to give it a try. I knew I liked running, but I just didn’t like the competition. The competition part of running was a little nerve wracking for me, so I wasn’t too sure how I would do."
However, Kopacz proved to be a natural on the track. In fact, she became so instantly dominating that she started setting school records left and right in distance races. She has become dominant at the conference level as well, having captured the last two Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championship races indoors at 5,000 meters, including setting the record in 2000. She is also the MAAC record holder outdoors at 5,000 meters. She was named the outstanding female runner in the indoor championships last year and she won the 3,000-meter and 5,000-meter races in this year’s indoor championships.
Last fall, running cross-country for the first time, she broke the existing MAAC women’s record by almost 31 seconds and she beat her nearest competitor in the 2000 race by about 48 seconds. Her time at the Disney World of Sports near Orlando, Florida, was also a course record for women. Running in a NCAA regional qualifying race at Penn State, she placed 14th, barely missing qualification for the 2000 national championships in cross-country.
Winning the MAAC was a great honor, but this weekend, she’s about to earn her biggest honor and distinction to date.
Kopacz has earned the right to compete in the NCAA Division I Indoor Track and Field Championships at the University of Arkansas, becoming the first athlete in the history of the school to earn a berth in the nationals.
"I’ve never experienced anything like this," Kopacz said, just a few hours before boarding the plane to Arkansas. "I guess I should be proud, considering I am the first ever in the school. I never thought something like this was possible."
Kopacz ran a 16:33.6 at the 168th Street Armory in a competition last month to set a qualifying time. She then had to wait out some tense moments last weekend to see if her provisional time would be able to stand up enough to make the sojourn to the nationals.
"I knew that there were a couple of meets around the country last weekend, so I wasn’t sure if I was going to go," Kopacz said. "I knew I was 19th or 20th, but I didn’t know how many would go. I didn’t find out until Tuesday."
But Kopacz received word that she had indeed qualified for the 5,000-meter run and will be among the field of 16 competitors this weekend.
"I’m very excited about it," Kopacz said. "It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I never thought it was possible. I ran that time during the first couple of races and I never thought it would be good enough for me to go to the NCAAs."
Kopacz has been doing her student teaching at St. Aloysius High School in Jersey City while she works toward her degree in elementary education. She is only a junior in track and field, so she will have another year of eligibility to compete next season.
"I’m strictly a runner now," Kopacz said. "I do the other sports for fun."
And how did her students react when she told them she would miss a few days of class to compete in the national championships?
"They were amazed," Kopacz said. "They thought it was pretty cool. They all started to ask me how fast I was and stuff."
What will Kopacz be thinking about when she enters the arena, representing a tiny New Jersey school as the school’s first-ever and only participant?
"It is going to be a little weird, maybe even a little intimidating," Kopacz said. "But I’m the underdog with nothing to lose. I’ll feel a little like those kids in ‘Hoosiers.’ But I think it will be a lot of fun."