Prolific runner has hot season

OLD TOWN – Cassie Hintz is one of the more prolific high school runners this state has ever seen. She routinely trains 60 to 70 miles a week even during track season, coinciding with her relentless assault on state distance running records.

But mud season – or what is supposed to be mud season, beneath all the snow – means a bit of a respite for the Old Town High School junior.

“I’m taking it a little easy right now,” said the 17-year-old resident of Stillwater. “It’s been a long season.”

It’s also been a very successful season for Hintz, who capped it off recently by winning the 5,000-meter run at the National Scholastic Indoor Track and Field Championships at the New York Armory.

Competing indoors for just the second time at that distance, Hintz won the 3.1-mile race in 17 minutes, 12.27 seconds, 23 seconds faster than second-place Marie Parks of North Syracuse, N.Y.

Hintz took the lead at the outset, running consistent 40- and 41-second laps to steadily pull away. She was timed in 5:21.7 for 1,600 meters and 10:49 for 3,200 meters, and went on to lap almost the entire field.

Hintz had her choice of elite meets, either the NSICs or the Nike Indoor Nationals at Landover, Md. She opted for the NSICs because of the chance to compete in the 5,000.

“I really don’t get to run that distance very often,” said Hintz. “I’m better at the longer distances, and I don’t get the opportunity to do the 5,000 that often.”

In fact, Hintz’s 5,000 indoor debut had come barely a month earlier, at the Terrier Invitational hosted by Boston University. In that meet, competing against a field of collegiate and elite club athletes, she finished eighth in 16:45.84, just off the national 5,000 high school record of 16:43.02 set a year ago at the NSICs by Brianna Jackucewicz of Farmingdale, N.J.

Other Hintz highlights this winter included her 21-second victory in the two-mile run at the New England Interscholastic Track and Field Championships in Boston. She finished in 10:37.18, the second-fastest time in the country for that distance this winter at the time.

And, oh yes, she also broke her own state Class B record in the two-mile with a clocking of 10:48.28 as last month’s state championship meet.

Challenging national records and seeing her name in national rankings is pretty heady stuff for anyone, but for Hintz it is representative of her aspirations.

“It’s exciting,” she said. “I’ve always wanted to get to this point.”

What makes that pursuit even more challenging is that she often runs alone during high school competitions, as she routinely laps competitors during indoor events and often does so outdoors on the quarter-mile tracks.

“I’m running against the clock a lot, and I have at least one person giving me my splits,” Hintz said.

While spring track will mark a return to her focus on the 3,200-meter run – she is the two-time defending state champion as well as the reigning Gatorade girls track athlete of the year for Maine based on her state-record 10:39.43 clocking at that distance – Hintz also will continue to pursue longer-distance events.

Her ultimate goal is to focus on 10,000 meters as a collegian in two years. Most of her experience these days come through the many road races she runs.

“That’s probably my favorite,” said Hintz of her road racing. “There’s always someone to run with because there are guys in the races, and there’s no pressure.”

As her times decrease, collegiate interest in her considerable running talents increases.

“I’ve gotten a lot of letters from schools,” said Hintz, who plans to study civil engineering after she graduates from Old Town. “I probably get about a letter a day.”