.jpg)
Mary Cain, who took the American distance running scene by storm beyond the high school level onto the professional and international ranks as a New York high school junior last year, will be competing in her second meet as professional runner for Nike (despite still being a high school senior) on Thursday at Boston University. She will be featured in a loaded women's 1000 meter race with fellow Nike pro runners Shannon Rowbury, Treniere Moser, and Jordan Hasay on a record attempt and chase on the American women's 1K national record. The US indoor 1000 meter record time of 2:34.19 is currently held by Jen Toomey, who achieved the performance from a February 2004 meet in Birmingham, Great Britain.
Cain made her indoor season and professional debut last Thursday in a low-profile Gotham Cup college meet at the New York Armory. She competed in two events with an impressive double that started with a US #7 high school all-time 500 meter dash clocking of 1:12.43. With limited recovery time, Cain came back to run a time of 2:08.51 in the 800 meter run.
​Cain will be joined by Nike Oregon Project teammates for two meets this month at Boston University. Cain will be back in New England racing at the BU Terrier Invitational on January 24th & 25th in the women's mile again with Rowbury, Hasay, and Moser. They will be giving chase as a group after the American women's national record of 4:20.5 set back in 1982 by the legendary Mary Slaney (Decker). Many often compare and draw similarities of Cain to Mary Decker (as she was known as a teen phenom before marriage), who also rose to become a world-class runner as a teenager.
Last year, Cain set the American high school records in the 800 (1:59.51), 1500 (4:04.62), mile (4:24.19), 3K (9:02.10), 2 mile (9:38.68), and 5K (15:45.56).
Sarah Bowman holds the US high school national record in the 1000 meter run at 2:43.40 from 2005. There is some debate among the gatekeepers of high school records whether Mary Cain's performances should count or not towards high school records now that she is a professional runner and no longer amateur status as a high school runner. However, Cain still does not graduate high school until this spring. Nonetheless, an exciting young athlete to follow and watch develop!
Flotrack will be providing LIVE COVERAGE at both of these events, which will also feature American record attempts on the men's by Galen Rupp and Matt Centrowitz.
BU Multi-Team Meet (1/16/14) Live Coverage
BU John Thomas Terrier Invite (1/24/14 & 1/25/14) Live Coverage
