The 2nd Annual Golden Shoe Awards

Kendra Schaaf: Teen Talent

By Julie Folk

Every time Kendra Schaaf wins a race or achieves a new personal best, she becomes even more excited to move up to the next step. “Once you start seeing what you can do and where you can go, it pushes you,” Schaaf says. The 19-year-old has had two years of milestones since joining the University of Washington Huskies. The sophomore cross-country and track and field runner impressed in her rookie year, becoming a Pac-10 champion and Pac-10 Conference Athlete of the Year while leading the Huskies to their first NCAA Championship. Away from school, she won the Canadian Junior Cross-Country National Championship, as well as the 1500m in a meet record 4:20.50, and 3000m in a meet record 9:14.62 at the Canadian Junior National Championship. She took second in the 5000m at the Canadian Senior Nationals, in 15:52.74. The previous year, she finished 20^th overall in the 2008 World Junior Cross-Country Championships in Scotland.

Since returning to Washington last fall with a new comfort at the collegiate level, she’s won the Sundodger Invitational, the Notre Dame Invitational and the Pre-National meet, all with a team ranked number one in the U.S. Schaaf also took second place in the Pac-10 Cross-Country Championship this year in a time of 19:46.17 (leading her team to the win for the second year in a row) and sprinted to second in the NCAA cross-country championships. Schaaf’s aggressive style of creating a big lead on the field off the gun and holding onto it for the race has become a trademark of sorts for her.

The native of Craven, Sask. decided on the University of Washington after running with the Queen City Striders in Regina. She’s led the elite team of cross-country runners since joining. “This has been what I’ve been working towards, so it’s nice for that to pay off,” Schaaf says. “It’s definitely hard work and there have been ups and downs. But even through the hard times, that’s when you start looking at why you run – because you like running.” Her love of the sport propelled Schaaf to get where she is, and now that she’s proven what she’s capable of, it pushes her to go harder each time out. Other athletes are starting to look up to her as a mentor, which she said still takes some getting used to.

Last year Schaaf red-shirted during the track and field season to save a year of eligibility. This year she’d like to do well on the track, and make the world team running in the senior division at the Canadian Cross-Country Championships.

Her race plan includes bettering herself every time out. “You can’t go into a race with a plan based on other people,” Schaaf says. “It’s more so just running the way you run and feeling good.”