FM's Kathy Mills Returns Home On The 40th Anniversary of Her Record Runs


Cross Country, and Track & Field for that matter, has long been considered the sport that accepts anyone and everyone.  However, that wasn't always the case.  For the girls of New York State, organized High School Cross Country is only 40 years old.  While it has grown heavily over the past half century, so much so that the talent level and depth has now since matched their male counterparts, there still had to be a beginning.

Kathy Mills was that beginning.

Mills ran in upstate New York for a school named Fayetteville-Manlius. The school was known best for their boys team finishing 3rd in the State in 1968, led by John Jeffrey, who took 4th that year.  Mills was already a talented athlete, running for the Syracuse Chargers under Coach Al Bonney.  But change was afoot.  With pressure from Title IX, New York State held the very first NYSPHSAA Outdoor Track Season for Women in 1975, where Mills would sweep the Mile and Two Mile Races at the State Championship.  Cross Country for girls would follow next in 1975, at Elma Meadow State Park that fall.  Kathy Mills won that race by nearly a full minute, clocking 14:38.2 for the 2.5 mile course.  The boys race, which was 3 miles, was won by Jim O'Shea in 15:41.8 for Class A.

Indoor Track for Girls wouldn't start until 1978, but that didn't stop Mills from clocking 9:50.4 indoors running for the Chargers.  She would later be recruited by Penn State, and go on to an illustrious Collegiate Career, which included the 5000m World Record, on the track.

Kathy Mills, now Kathy Mills-Parker, currently lives in Portland, Oregon, where she is a coach of High School Cross Country herself.  She is married to Mark Parker, CEO and Company Chairman of Nike, and has three kids.  More can be read about her career below.

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It's now 40 years later, and Fayetteville-Manlius has made a resurgence in the sport.  Coupled with the advent of Nike Cross Nationals, many argue that the FM girls cross country program kickstarted the level of competition for girl's XC in the country, bolstered by the promotion of Bill Aris to head coach in the early 2000s.  Their girls team have won 9 of the last 10 years at Nike Cross Nationals, with a Boys win as well in 2014.  However, despite their dominance, one mark remained.  Kathy Mills' Indoor Section Record for 3000m, the longest distance indoors and the most natural transition for XC Runners, withstood the test of time.

That is, until Kaitlyn Neal, a senior at Mills' alma mater, took it down this Winter.

Kathy Mills visited the school in early February to mark the occasion.  Not only was the torch passed to the younger generation on the track, but Claire Walters, an 8th Grader for Fayetteville-Manlius, also won the Class A Championship in Cross Country exactly 40 years since Mills first made history at Elma Meadows.  As Mills said about her record upon her visit, "If it was going to be broken, I'm happy it stays at Fayetteville-Manlius."




More on Kathy Mills-Parker

via Greater Syracuse Sports Hall Of Fame

Mill attended Fayetteville-Manlius and also participated with Al Bonney's famous Syracuse Chargers indoor and outdoor track programs. In 1975, she placed first in the New York State Intersectional Girls Cross Country Championship held at Elma Meadow. She also ran in the National AAU Junior Women's Championship held in Belmont, California. Mills was honored as WTVH Channel 5's Athlete of the Week as well as the Syracuse Newspapers Female Track Athlete of the Year in the mile and two-mile events.

Mills went to Penn State where she received a full athletic scholarship and starred in cross country and indoor and outdoor track. She won numerous conference, national and international awards, including three prestigious Broderick Awards (given to the top colligate female athlete in the country). In 1977, Mills won the AIAW National Collegiate Cross-Country Championship held in Austin, Texas. Just a sophomore, she blitzed the 5,000-meter course in an amazing 16:50.2.

1978 was another big year in Mills' career as she won the 5,000-meter AIAW National Track & Field Championship. She set a new world record in the outdoor 5,000-meter event at the University of Tennessee.

Despite the wear and tear of this tenuous sport, which resulted in surgeries, Mills continued to compete at a high level. She graduated from Penn State with a degree in journalism.

Mills, who now resides in Oregon, is married to Mark Parker, an executive with Nike, and they have three children.

Career highlights:

1975: Placed first in the state Girls Cross Country Championship

1977: Won the AIAW National Collegiate Cross Country Championship

1978: Set a new world record in the outdoor 5000 meters