Katie McGregor
Encyclopedia
Katie McGregor is an American
runner who participates in track
, cross country
and the marathon
.
in Willoughby, Ohio
. She was the state champion of Ohio in the 3200-meter run with a time of 10:49.74 as a freshman (1992), and a state champion in the 1600-meter run with a time of 4:56.32 as a senior (1995).
in the fall of 1995, majoring in English and competing in both cross country and track.
Freshman of the Year. She was the first freshman and first Wolverine to complete the course at the conference championship meet, helping her team to third-place finish behind the champion Wisconsin Badgers
. In awful weather conditions at the NCAA District IV regional meet two weeks later, McGregor and her teammates were able to improve upon their performance at the Big Ten meet, with McGregor finishing in third-place and the Michigan team upsetting Wisconsin and winning the regional title outright. Their victory earned the team an automatic berth to the NCAA Women's Cross Country Championship
. McGregor was the third Wolverine finisher in the championship (placing 39th overall), helping her team run to a seventh-place finish at the final meet.
of 1997, McGregor was named Big Ten Athlete of the Year after winning the individual title with a time of 17:14. She managed a second-place finish to teammate Elizabeth Kampfe in the NCAA District IV regional meet in mid-November, helping the Wolverines to clinch the runner-up spot and an automatic berth in the NCAA championship. A week later in the championship, McGregor earned All-America honors by running to a fourth-place finish in a time of 16:48. She was the first finisher for the Wolverines, leading the team to seventh-place in the meet overall.
During the indoor track season the following winter (1998), she won the two NCAA
titles, one individually in the 3000-meter run with a time of 9:24.68, and another running the 1600-meter anchor leg in the distance medley relay, clocking a 4:38 split. During the outdoor track season, McGregor helped the Wolverines win the Big Ten championship by earning 14 points at the conference meet through a third-place finish in the 1500-meter run and a runner-up finish to Angie Kujak of the University of Wisconsin–Madison
in the 5000-meter run. At the outdoor NCAA outdoor track and field championships in June, McGregor managed a runner-up finish to Amy Skieresz of the Arizona Wildcats
in the 5000-meter run.
, transitioning from the shorter distance races to the 10000-meter run. In the spring of 2000, she achieved her first major post-collegiate victory, winning the 10000-meter run at the Stanford Invitational, setting a meet record with a time of 32:33.62. She competed in the event at the Olympic trials later that summer, but did not qualify to represent the U.S. team in Sydney, Australia. The following year, she moved to Minneapolis, and began training with Team Minnesota under sponsorship from Reebok
.
Over the next few years, McGregor competed in variety of distance races, performing well, and continuing to improve upon her personal best times in several running events. Highlights during 2004 included a second-place finish at the U.S. Cross Country Championships (8000-meter distance), as well as personal bests in both the 5000-meter and 10000-meter runs prior to the Olympic Trials. At the Olympic Trials, she narrowly missed qualifying for the games in Athens
, taking fourth place in the 10000-meter run. Despite finishing fourth, McGregor would have earned a spot on the Olympic team if she met the "A" standard of 31:45, but she finished with a time of 32:33.87. In regards to her performance she commented that "I was really angry, because I failed myself."
2005 saw her personal best times in all races continue to improve, culminating in a come-from-behind victory in the 10000-meter run at the U.S. Outdoor Championships in May. She competed in the event for the U.S. team at the IAAF World Championships in Athletics
in Helsinki, Finland in August 2005, taking fourteenth place overall as the top U.S. finisher, with a personal best time of 31:21.20.
and achieving a ninth-place finish with a time of 2:32:36 in her debut at this distance.
In the spring of 2007, McGregor won the USATF 25 km championship, completing the River Bank Run in a time of 1:25:53 nearly three minutes ahead of the rest of the field. As part of the U.S. team in the summer of 2007, McGregor once again competed in the 10000-meter run at the IAAF Championships in Osaka, Japan, finishing in thirteenth place overall as the third U.S. finisher. During the autumn, she was named to the U.S. team running in the IAAF World Road Running Championships in Udine, Italy. She set a personal best in this competition, taking twenty-seventh place in the half marathon with a time of 1:12:01.
Success continued for McGregor in early 2008, with a fourth-place finish at the U.S. Cross Country Championships in San Diego. This marked her sixth consecutive year as a member of the national cross country team, with whom she will compete at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships
in Edinburgh
in late March. At the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in June, McGregor again narrowly missed qualifying for the Olympics in the 10000-meter run. She competed well, but her time of 32:29.82 only earned her another fourth-place finish in the event at the Trials. Unlike the 2004 trials, this time McGregor had already met the "A" standard. Amy Yoder Begley made a furious charge at the end of the race, which met the standard and therefore qualified her for the team over McGregor. In response to this disappointing outcome, McGregor said:
McGregor won USA 25 km Championships in May 2010 and then the USA 10-Mile Championships hosted at the Twin Cities Marathon
in September, marking her sixth victory of the competition.
by authors such as Sylvia Plath
and Cormac McCarthy
. McGregor is also a big fan of Frank Sinatra
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
runner who participates in track
Track and field
Track and field is a sport comprising various competitive athletic contests based around the activities of running, jumping and throwing. The name of the sport derives from the venue for the competitions: a stadium which features an oval running track surrounding a grassy area...
, cross country
Cross country running
Cross country running is a sport in which people run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open country, and include hills, flat ground and sometimes gravel road...
and the marathon
Marathon
The marathon is a long-distance running event with an official distance of 42.195 kilometres , that is usually run as a road race...
.
High school
McGregor attended Willoughby South High SchoolSouth High School (Willoughby, Ohio)
South High School is a public high school in Willoughby, Ohio. It is one of two high schools in the Willoughby-Eastlake City School District. The school was created when the Willoughby Union High School was split into South High and North High School...
in Willoughby, Ohio
Willoughby, Ohio
As of the census of 2000, there were 22,621 people, 10,265 households, and 5,892 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,225.3 people per square mile . There were 10,700 housing units at an average density of 1,052.6 per square mile...
. She was the state champion of Ohio in the 3200-meter run with a time of 10:49.74 as a freshman (1992), and a state champion in the 1600-meter run with a time of 4:56.32 as a senior (1995).
College
McGregor continued running as a student-athlete at the University of MichiganUniversity of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
in the fall of 1995, majoring in English and competing in both cross country and track.
Freshman year: 1995/1996
During her first season of cross country as a Wolverine, she was named Big TenBig Ten Conference
The Big Ten Conference is the United States' oldest Division I college athletic conference. Its twelve member institutions are located primarily in the Midwestern United States, stretching from Nebraska in the west to Pennsylvania in the east...
Freshman of the Year. She was the first freshman and first Wolverine to complete the course at the conference championship meet, helping her team to third-place finish behind the champion Wisconsin Badgers
Wisconsin Badgers
The Wisconsin Badgers are the collegiate athletic teams from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. This NCAA Division I athletic program has teams in football, basketball, ice hockey, volleyball, soccer, cross country, tennis, swimming, wrestling, track and field, rowing, golf, and softball...
. In awful weather conditions at the NCAA District IV regional meet two weeks later, McGregor and her teammates were able to improve upon their performance at the Big Ten meet, with McGregor finishing in third-place and the Michigan team upsetting Wisconsin and winning the regional title outright. Their victory earned the team an automatic berth to the NCAA Women's Cross Country Championship
NCAA Women's Cross Country Championship
Each autumn, beginning in 1981, the National Collegiate Athletic Association has hosted women's cross country championships for each of its three divisions...
. McGregor was the third Wolverine finisher in the championship (placing 39th overall), helping her team run to a seventh-place finish at the final meet.
Sophomore year: 1996/1997
McGregor's sophomore cross country season was somewhat disappointing, as both she and all but one of her Wolverine teammates missed qualifying for the NCAA championship meet.Junior year: 1997/1998
During her junior cross country season in the fallAutumn
Autumn is one of the four temperate seasons. Autumn marks the transition from summer into winter usually in September or March when the arrival of night becomes noticeably earlier....
of 1997, McGregor was named Big Ten Athlete of the Year after winning the individual title with a time of 17:14. She managed a second-place finish to teammate Elizabeth Kampfe in the NCAA District IV regional meet in mid-November, helping the Wolverines to clinch the runner-up spot and an automatic berth in the NCAA championship. A week later in the championship, McGregor earned All-America honors by running to a fourth-place finish in a time of 16:48. She was the first finisher for the Wolverines, leading the team to seventh-place in the meet overall.
During the indoor track season the following winter (1998), she won the two NCAA
National Collegiate Athletic Association
The National Collegiate Athletic Association is a semi-voluntary association of 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States...
titles, one individually in the 3000-meter run with a time of 9:24.68, and another running the 1600-meter anchor leg in the distance medley relay, clocking a 4:38 split. During the outdoor track season, McGregor helped the Wolverines win the Big Ten championship by earning 14 points at the conference meet through a third-place finish in the 1500-meter run and a runner-up finish to Angie Kujak of the University of Wisconsin–Madison
University of Wisconsin–Madison
The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...
in the 5000-meter run. At the outdoor NCAA outdoor track and field championships in June, McGregor managed a runner-up finish to Amy Skieresz of the Arizona Wildcats
Arizona Wildcats
-Athletic program:The University of Arizona participates in the NCAA's Division I-A in the Pacific-12 Conference Arizona participates in the conference's South Division, along with Arizona State, Colorado, UCLA, USC, and Utah...
in the 5000-meter run.
Senior year: 1998/1999
McGregor’s running success continued during her senior cross country season, when she won seven out of eight meets, including the Big Ten title in a time of 17:16, the Great Lakes Regional title in a time of 17:02.39, and the NCAA championship in a time of 16:47.21. For her efforts, McGregor was honored with the Honda Award, given to the nation’s top female cross country runner. During the 1999 outdoor track season, she won her final collegiate championship, winning the Big Ten title in the 5000-meter run with a time of 16:32.83. She later bested this time at the NCAA meet, earning All-American honors by taking third place in the race with a time of 16:15.75. For her achievements during her senior year, McGregor was named University of Michigan Female Athlete of the Year. During her time competing for Michigan, she was a three-time NCAA champion, eight-time NCAA All-American, and three-time Big Ten Conference champion.Post-collegiate/professional
Following college, McGregor remained in Ann Arbor and continued training and competing under sponsorship from AdidasAdidas
Adidas AG is a German sports apparel manufacturer and parent company of the Adidas Group, which consists of the Reebok sportswear company, TaylorMade-Adidas golf company , and Rockport...
, transitioning from the shorter distance races to the 10000-meter run. In the spring of 2000, she achieved her first major post-collegiate victory, winning the 10000-meter run at the Stanford Invitational, setting a meet record with a time of 32:33.62. She competed in the event at the Olympic trials later that summer, but did not qualify to represent the U.S. team in Sydney, Australia. The following year, she moved to Minneapolis, and began training with Team Minnesota under sponsorship from Reebok
Reebok
Reebok International Limited, a subsidiary of the German sportswear company Adidas since 2005, is a producer of Athletic shoes, apparel, and accessories. The name comes from the Afrikaans spelling of rhebok, a type of African antelope or gazelle...
.
Over the next few years, McGregor competed in variety of distance races, performing well, and continuing to improve upon her personal best times in several running events. Highlights during 2004 included a second-place finish at the U.S. Cross Country Championships (8000-meter distance), as well as personal bests in both the 5000-meter and 10000-meter runs prior to the Olympic Trials. At the Olympic Trials, she narrowly missed qualifying for the games in Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
, taking fourth place in the 10000-meter run. Despite finishing fourth, McGregor would have earned a spot on the Olympic team if she met the "A" standard of 31:45, but she finished with a time of 32:33.87. In regards to her performance she commented that "I was really angry, because I failed myself."
2005 saw her personal best times in all races continue to improve, culminating in a come-from-behind victory in the 10000-meter run at the U.S. Outdoor Championships in May. She competed in the event for the U.S. team at the IAAF World Championships in Athletics
IAAF World Championships in Athletics
The World Championships in Athletics is an event organized by the International Association of Athletics Federations . Originally, it was organised every four years, but this changed in 1991, and it has since been organised biennially.-History:...
in Helsinki, Finland in August 2005, taking fourteenth place overall as the top U.S. finisher, with a personal best time of 31:21.20.
Longer distance races
In the autumn of 2006, McGregor began exploring longer distance races, competing in the New York City MarathonNew York City Marathon
The New York City Marathon is a major annual marathon that courses through the five boroughs of New York City. It is one of the largest marathons in the world, with 45,103 finishers in 2010...
and achieving a ninth-place finish with a time of 2:32:36 in her debut at this distance.
In the spring of 2007, McGregor won the USATF 25 km championship, completing the River Bank Run in a time of 1:25:53 nearly three minutes ahead of the rest of the field. As part of the U.S. team in the summer of 2007, McGregor once again competed in the 10000-meter run at the IAAF Championships in Osaka, Japan, finishing in thirteenth place overall as the third U.S. finisher. During the autumn, she was named to the U.S. team running in the IAAF World Road Running Championships in Udine, Italy. She set a personal best in this competition, taking twenty-seventh place in the half marathon with a time of 1:12:01.
Success continued for McGregor in early 2008, with a fourth-place finish at the U.S. Cross Country Championships in San Diego. This marked her sixth consecutive year as a member of the national cross country team, with whom she will compete at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships
IAAF World Cross Country Championships
IAAF World Cross Country Championships is the most important competition in international cross country running. Held annually and organised by International Association of Athletics Federations , it was inaugurated in 1973, when it replaced the International Cross Country Championships...
in Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
in late March. At the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in June, McGregor again narrowly missed qualifying for the Olympics in the 10000-meter run. She competed well, but her time of 32:29.82 only earned her another fourth-place finish in the event at the Trials. Unlike the 2004 trials, this time McGregor had already met the "A" standard. Amy Yoder Begley made a furious charge at the end of the race, which met the standard and therefore qualified her for the team over McGregor. In response to this disappointing outcome, McGregor said:
I felt like I failed myself in 2004. But this time I did what I needed to do, and Amy ran well. I tried to put a happy face on it. You don't want to be Debbie Downer and feel sorry for yourself. It's not like I'm the only person to finish fourth.
McGregor won USA 25 km Championships in May 2010 and then the USA 10-Mile Championships hosted at the Twin Cities Marathon
Twin Cities Marathon
The Twin Cities Marathon is an annual marathon in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area. The race is often dubbed "The Most Beautiful Urban Marathon in America." The TCM was first run in 1982, and typically takes place during the first weekend in October. In 2006 the Marathon agreed to its first...
in September, marking her sixth victory of the competition.
Personal
McGregor resides in suburban Minneapolis while running for Team USA Minnesota. She enjoys reading literatureLiterature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
by authors such as Sylvia Plath
Sylvia Plath
Sylvia Plath was an American poet, novelist and short story writer. Born in Massachusetts, she studied at Smith College and Newnham College, Cambridge before receiving acclaim as a professional poet and writer...
and Cormac McCarthy
Cormac McCarthy
Cormac McCarthy is an American novelist and playwright. He has written ten novels, spanning the Southern Gothic, Western, and modernist genres. He received the Pulitzer Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction for The Road...
. McGregor is also a big fan of Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
.
Achievements
- 2007 USATF 25 km Champion
- 2006 USATF 10 km Champion
- 2005 USATF 10 km Champion
- 2005 USATF Outdoor Champion (10000-meter run)
- 2003–2008 U.S. World Cross Country team (8 km)
- 1999 Big Ten Conference Outdoor Track & Field Champion (5000-meter run)
- 1998 NCAA Cross Country Champion
- 1998 NCAA Indoor Track & Field Champion (3000-meter run, Distance Medley Relay)
- 1998 Big Ten Conference Cross Country Champion
- 1997 Big Ten Conference Cross Country Champion