Take two: Higginson wins 3,000
Colts Neck senior becomes fourth girl to repeat as champ
04/29/2007
Ashley Higginson loves the fact that she made her name in track last year at the Penn Relays.

So when the Colts Neck senior repeated as champion in the high school girls 3,000 meters here in 9:37.91, it meant that her name will be permanently etched into Penn's record books.

Higginson became just the fourth girl to repeat as champion and the first from New Jersey. Janet Smith of North Edison won here in 1984 and Jodie Bilotta of North Hunterdon won in 1988, but neither Star-Ledger All-Century athlete repeated at this prestigious meet.

"Winning last year made me want to do this and it made me realize the dedication I needed for the sport," Higginson said. "This race makes me a part of a history that I've always admired."

Cassandra Schenck of Crestwood in Mantua, Ohio, placed second in 9:48.33 and Catherine White of Northside in Roanoke, Va., finished third in 9:49.10.

Higginson, who ran in front for all but the first 200 meters of the race, ran five seconds faster than her triumph last spring and just missed out on the state record of 9:37.1, which Bilotta set in 1987.

Higginson's time ranks ninth all-time at Penn and it was the latest in a string of successes that dated back to her triumph here last April. Last fall she won the Nike Team National race in Oregon. This past winter she broke the state record in the two-mile (10:16.75) at the National Scholastic Indoor Championships in New York.

Then, just a few weeks ago, she broke the state record in the 5,000 (16:38.51) against college competition at Princeton.

Now that she has added another chapter to her recent run of success, leaving Franklin Field with back-to-back victories left the Princeton-bound senior feeling nostalgic.

"I came here last year and it was the most amazing thing to win something," she said. "It was the race that changed my life. Ever since then, it's been a whirlwind of events. Now it's bittersweet that I'm leaving. Coming here, this is tradition, this is history. I'm going to miss it."

Other standouts from New Jersey in the 3,000 were Theresa Cattuna of Cherry Hill East, sixth overall in 9:55, and Nicol Traynor of Ridge, eighth in 9:59.89.

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