Cedarville’s Carsyn Koch Back To Doing What She Does Best: Winning

Cedarville’s Carsyn Koch Back To Doing What She Does Best: Winning

Ever since she was a prep standout at Washburn District High School in Maine — and probably way before then — Carsyn Koch has been a full-blown winner.

Koch captured countless individual titles on the track, set the state record in the high jump, became just the third female in state history to earn four consecutive individual crowns in cross country and helped three different teams to six combined state titles (four with basketball, one in cross country and another in soccer).

So it’s nearly impossible imagining Koch being merely average — and not great — at something.

Yet upon Koch’s arrival at Cedarville University last year, the 800 wasn’t her strong suit. In fact, Yellow Jacket coach Jeff Bolender admitted to thinking that if she got down to the 2:10 range by her senior year, it would be a success.

“When you run 2:21 in high school, you don’t come to college thinking you’re a hot shot,” Koch said. “You’re really just another runner that can do that.”

TOP COLLEGIATE 800-METER TIMES DURING 2015-16 ACADEMIC YEAR

Raevyn Rogers, Oregon 2:00.90
Olivia Baker, Stanford 2:01.02
Kaela Edwards, OK State 2:01.97
Morgan Schuetz, LSU 2:02.29
Carsyn Koch, Cedarville 2:02.39
Cecilia Barowski, Princeton 2:02.62
Raevyn Rogers, Oregon 2:02.81
Ce’aira Brown, Hampton 2:02.82
Cecilia Barowski, Princeton 2:03.05
Sabrina Southerland, G’Town 2:03.10

Well, a lot can change in two years.

That happens when an athlete matures, drops a counterintuitive event from her repertoire (high jump) and focuses all of her competitive energy on developing into an all-time great in another.

This past weekend at the Payton Jordan Invitational, Koch became the fastest woman in DII history over 800 meters. Koch placed fourth in the sub-elite section and crossed the finish line in 2:02.39 after posting the heat’s fastest closing lap (1:02.81). In doing so, she broke a record that had stood since 1990.

Two weeks earlier, Koch turned in what was then the third fastest time in DII history at the Mt. SAC Relays (2:03.58). If it weren’t for some serendipity on her second trip to the Golden State in the month of April, chances are that would have been her best shot at the standard.

“I didn’t get into that good heat originally, but something worked out,” Koch said. “At first I was really discouraged and worried that I went all the way out to California for nothing and wouldn’t get that good competition to run against and was missing valuable time to study for finals — but things have a way of working themselves out.”

So when did the light bulb turn on for Koch?

At what moment did she realize she could go from a personal best in the low-2:20s to running the fifth fastest time in the collegiate ranks this academic year? Koch currently sits behind the "Who’s Who" of DI mid-distance standouts (see chart).

If you ask Koch’s coach, it happened when she soloed a 1:15.36 for 500 meters as a freshman.

“After she got done she said she didn’t even realize the race was over,” Bolender said. “It’s not a distance many people run, but she made it look easy and we hadn’t seen that speed before.”

To Koch, the breakthrough came during her team’s trip to the Emory Invitational last year in Atlanta, Georgia. Koch split 2:11 in a winning 4×800 effort and doubled down with a 2:09.49 in the open 800 the following afternoon.

“I had a bad taste in my mouth from indoor since I didn’t capitalize on my training and figured out too late what could have been,” Koch said. “I had a lot of fire in my belly. I needed to prove myself and prove to myself that my training pays off, no matter how hard it is.”

Just like that, 2:21 turned into 2:09.49, then 2:05.21 by the time Koch finished runner-up at the 2015 NCAA Division II Outdoor Championships. The next time Koch stepped on the track with an NCAA title hanging in the balance, she ran a PR of 2:05.12 and won by more than two seconds two months ago.

Now Koch wants to "knock the .4 off" and go sub-2:02. She’ll have two more legitimate chances to do that: When she goes for the 800 sweep in Bradenton, Florida on May 28 and then in early July at the U.S. Olympic Trials.

"Another NCAA title would be nice and I’m hoping to run a great time," said Koch, who is a self-described cat lover. "As far as Trials go, I’m not going in there thinking that I’m an underdog or the last one in. I deserve to be there, too, and can’t wait to see what I can do against great competition. It’s very humbling."