By Christopher Hunt
SCARSDALE – Mary Cain is still a kid. She likes to jump around and joke before and after races. She can’t find a reason to go to bed after 9:30p.m. Her biggest concern is still usually where she’s going to find some ice cream.
Bronxville’s Cain is just a freshman. By now, she’s achieved almost every time-goal she’s ever set for her high school career. Now she wants to find where her limits are, because it’s safe to say at this point that no one knows.
“One of my goals has always been to throw up,” she said. “I don’t know. I just want to know what it feels like to get to that point.”
Cain hasn’t found her boundaries yet. But while she’s searching, the freshman has emerged as one of the best middle distance runners in the country this season. On Saturday, she broke the New York State 1,500-meter record at the Somers Invitational in 4:23.1, the fastest-time in the country this season. Her time topped a mark of 4:23.2 set by Mepham’s Christine Curtain in 1982. Cain clocked 2:06.44 to win the 800 meters at the New York Relays last month, which currently stands as the second-best time in the United States this season.
On Tuesday, Cain was at Edgemont High in Scarsdale, at her league championships. Her coach, hall of famer Jim Mitchell, gave her the task of breaking 55 seconds in the 400. Cain exploded off the starting line. Her stride always seems abnormally powerful for her size. She’s built like a young distance runner, tiny and compact. Yet, she motored down the back stretch like any of the best quarter-milers in the state. Cain made the race look like a trial time – to some extent it was – but stalled a bit on the last turn and finished in 56.4.
When she finish Mitchell had brushed off the race and was already talking about the Friends Invitational in Warwick Valley Friday. Cain is scheduled to run the 3,000. Mitchell was already explaining her race plan and breaking down splits. He reminded her that the Section 1 record is 9:35.42 set by Suffern’s Shelby Greany in 2009.
“I never really thought of it in seventh and eighth grade that there would be records out there for me to break,” Cain said. “I was just running because it was fun.’
Now Cain has a chance to make an assault on some record almost every time she touches the track. The most unbelievable part of Cain’s young career resume is her outstanding range. Cain has the footspeed to contend with the best 400-meter runners in the state. She has a personal best of 55.5. She also won her first Class C state cross country title in the fall.
“Obviously, she good in cross country,” Mitchell said. “But you don’t expect a cross country runner to be this fast.”
Cain showed potential for the time she joined the team in seventh grade. That year she clocked a 5:00 relay split on the 1,600 leg of the distance medley relay at the Glenn D. Loucks Games. She later posted 10:12.08 at the Section 1 state qualifier. This past indoor season, Mitchell said he decided to race Cain in the 300 meters. It was supposed to be fun. That day he realized Cain was the fastest girl on his team.
Now she’s the fastest girl on any team he’s ever had.
“She’s just very, very fast,” he said. “And she doesn’t look like she’s using much effort, ever.”
Cain became one of the most standout freshmen in the country indoors. She finished second at the state championships in the 1,000 and had an outstanding season-best of 2:50.84. Cain placed sixth in the 800 at New Balance Indoor Nationals in 2:09.62, four seconds faster than any freshman in the country indoors. She garnered even more attention at the start of the outdoor season when she blasted a 4:41.8, 1600 anchor leg on the DMR at the Green Dragon Relays in Cornwall April 9.
While she has all the playful energy of a freshman, Cain has emerged into one of the veterans on her young team. But she doesn’t quite consider herself seasoned. This past cross country season was her first. It was Cain’s first time at Penn Relays two weeks ago, when her 4:47.38 anchored the Broncos to a sixth-place finish in the DMR. She can still point to all the things that make her seem like a rookie.
“I’m still the person that shows up to practice on a full stomach,” she said. “Then I’ll be complaining to Mitchell about how my stomach hurts. I can’t help it.”
She says she still makes a ton of bad decisions during races, especially going out too hard. Without fail, Cain will get through the first lap of a race and ask herself if the clock is wrong or why she had decided to torture herself. But each time she finds that her engine is tireless, that she still hasn’t pushed herself hard enough.
“That’s what makes her so good,” said sophomore teammate Meredith Rizzo. “She really doesn’t think about the fact that it’s supposed to hurt. She’s just so strong mentally for someone her age.”
Mitchell hasn’t found her limit either. He said he believe that Cain can break two minutes for the 800 before she graduates, something no high school girl has ever done. All Cain needs to do is keep the same approach.
“I think every day that I’ve ever run a race, I don’t think I could go any faster than I went on that day,” she said. “People ask me what my goals are and I tell them that I honestly don’t think about it anymore. I’m starting to realize my place in everything. But at the end of the day, I’m going to go to school, run and then go home, read and go to sleep. Just like I did before.”
