Published by the DAILY RECORD of Morris
County, New Jersey
On Sunday, May 4 2014
Copyright, Madeline Bost, 2014
She watched her daddy go out the door for his runs and
wanted to run with him. She was only a
baby when he first ran trying to lose a little weight and get into shape. “He fell in love with it,” said Lauren Penney
of her dad Steve Penney of Succasunna.
So it was natural for her to want to run with him and at
nine Lauren ran in her first race. Her early
career was short lived though. She signed
up for the Roxbury Recreation Department track and field program, but that year
the track was being rebuilt and the kids had no track of their own to train
on.
“It was not fun at all.
Running’s not for me,” she concluded.
It wasn’t until she was in middle school that she gave it
another try. This time she had found her
calling. Penney was a freshman when the
Roxbury girls cross country team was on fire.
Ali Caruana, Jenn Ennis, Kristen Stevens, Casey Campbell,
Sarah Tencza and Ashley Cromartie another freshman. They won the Meet of Champions in 2004 and
earned the right to fly to Portland Oregon for the Nike Cross Country national
meet where they placed ninth out of twenty teams.
“I got a really awesome experience out of it,” said
Penney. “I credit my own running from them
bringing me along with them.”
Penney also credits the girls coach Sherry Sikora for developing
the talented girls on the team. Sikora
was a standout at Roxbury when she was in high school there, and she came back
straight out of college to coach at her alma mater.
After high school Penney continued running at Syracuse
University where she made All American in the 2011 NCAA Cross Country
Championships and All American again in 2013 at the NCAA Outdoor Championships
in the 5,000 meters where she placed eighth.
After graduating in 2012 Penney continued to run and to race
and she is now with the New Jersey* New York Track Club that was organized just
a handful of years back. The club has
attracted a growing number of young talented runners who train under the tutelage
of Frank “Gags” Gagliano at Rutgers University in New Brunswick.
Just like the rest of New Jersey runners it was a hard
winter to get in the training but being aligned with Rutgers the team was able
to run indoors at the Bubble which helped Penney to get in her 70 to 75 miles
per week. The team trains together for
workouts and on Saturdays for their long runs they often run on the D&R
Towpath nearby and sometimes drive out to run on the Columbia Trail that
stretches from Long Valley to High Bridge.
Penney says she is looking for a big PR (personal record) at
her race Sunday night (May 4) at the Payton Jordan Invitational at Stanford
University. She set her current PR of
15:56.8 last fall and like most runners she was reluctant to name the time she
is hoping to run.
Two weeks from now Penney will be running in a 1,500 meter
race at the USATF Oxy
High Performance Meet in Los Angeles. PR’s
will likely fall there as well.
“The 4:13 that I ran last spring (in the 1,500) was after a
4:37 PR in the mile from indoors and this
year I ran a 4:31 in the mile indoors so I’m hoping to bring that down a little
bit too.”
Back at home Steve Penney and his wife Donna are watching
the development of their talented daughter.
Lauren Penney said that they almost never missed an event while she was
competing for Syracuse.
“They love it,” said Penney.
“Their attitude is that if you’re going to do it, it’s got to be while
you’re young, when you can.”
Penney’s event is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. Pacific time. Results will be posted on gostandford.com
Two other New Jersey women; Ashley Higginson who was a
standout at Colts Neck, and Amy Van Alstine who ran for Midland Park are also
entered with Penney in the elite section.
You can bet that some families in those two towns and in
Roxbury will be staying up a little late tonight.
##
A calendar of USATF sanctioned events can be found at www.usatfnj.org or at www.raceforum.com for running and tri and
biathlon events.
Contact Madeline Bost at madelinebost@verizon.net.
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