Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
ROAD TO RIO
Runge happily recalls early days in swimming
COCHRANVILLE >> Next month, Cierra Runge will experience the pinnacle of swimming at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. But the 20-year-old still gets excited when she harkens back to the days of getting her start in the sport at the Jennersville YMCA in the early 2000s.
“Just thinking back on those days brings a smile to my face,” Runge said during a telephone interview.
“I remember having the greatest time. I remember Wednesday and Saturday meets where I would watch the older kids. I remember running around with my friends. I remember bagel Tuesday and pancake Wednesday. It helped me love the sport.”
Runge’s love for the sport has only blossomed over the intervening years, paralleling her steady rise from swim club standout, to NCAA record holder, and now to a proud member of Team USA. A freestyle specialist, Runge punched her ticket to Rio as a member of the 4x200-meter freestyle relay team.
“It may sound corny, but swimming has been like a calling for me,” Runge said. “You would think after 16 years I would be sick of it, but it’s the exact opposite.”
Around swimming circles, the story of Runge’s introduction to the sport and the Olympics is now legend, but it is true. A four-yearold Cierra sat in front of the television set in the summer of 2000, mesmerized by the swimming events at the Olympic Games in Seoul.
And at one point, she pointed to the screen and said: “I’m going to do that someday Mommy.”
“It was definitely one of those moments when you realize that something wasn’t normal,” said her Mom, Diane. “It was like something that came straight out of a movie.”
Runge doesn’t really remember saying those words, but she’s heard the story many times. She does, however, recall being engrossed with what she was seeing, and agrees that it was a seminal moment in her swimming career.
“Competing in the Olympics has been a dream of mine since I was four years old,” Runge acknowledged. “I was completely obsessed. I said, ‘that’s what I want to do,’ and my parents were like, ‘OK … you are four.’”
Very soon thereafter, Runge was enrolled in swimming lessons in Jennersville, and honed her skills over the next seven years under YMCA coach Brian Polaski.
“I made lifelong friends there, and when we get together it’s just like old times, we fall right back into it like we are five year olds,” she said.
The Octorara School District does not have a pool and does not offer swimming, so Runge spent all of her early teen years with swimming clubs, first with Team Delaware and later with the North Baltimore Aquatic Club (NBAC) and famed coach Bob Bowman.
“From when I first swam at the YMCA and on to club swimming, each rung that I climbed I always thought: ‘how far can I go?’” Runge explained. “It’s always been about the Olympics for me.
“I remember sitting at a zone select camp, which was one of those rungs, and during a meeting one of the coaches said: ‘look around this room. Only a handful of you are going to get a chance to make the Olympic Team, and I said to myself, ‘I am going to be one of those people.’”
A 2014 graduate of Octorara High School, Runge missed out on high school swimming, but it did allow her to focus solely on NBAC.
“It would have been great to swim for Octorara, but not having a team actually kind of helped because there was no tug-andpull for me between high school and club swimming,” Runge pointed out.
Runge won four medals at the 2013 FINA World Junior Championships, grabbed a spot on the 2014 U.S. National Junior Team, took a silver medal in the 400 freestyle at the ’14 Pan Pacific Games, and won a gold medal at the 400 at the 2015 World Championships.
She earned a full-ride swimming scholarship to Cal-Berkley, and made a Cierra Runge prepares to swim in the women’s 800-meter freestyle preliminaries. huge splash as a freshman in 2014-15. Runge was a member of the winning 800 freestyle relay that broke the NCAA and American record at the Pac 12 Championships, and followed it up the next day by shattering the NCAA mark en route to a win in the 500 freestyle.
Cal went on to win the National Title and Runge was named the Pac 12 Swimmer of the Year.
“I had no expectations heading in,” Runge said. “I went into it just to have some fun and to try and beat the girl next to me. The fact that I broke an NCAA record and we won the NCAA team title was just a cherry on top.”
With Rio looming, Runge decided to take the 2015-16 year off from college to focus on making Team USA. Last August, she moved to Tempe, Ariz., to continue training with Bowman, and his more renowned students like Michael Phelps and Allison Schmitt.
“I was willing to do anything and everything in order to put myself in the best position to make the team,” Runge said.
“Taking the time off was worth it. Even if I didn’t make the team, I think it would have been worth it because I would have known in my heart that I did everything I could to make this team.”
It paid off at the US Olympic Trials earlier this summer in Omaha, Neb. Runge placed fifth in the 200 freestyle to earn a spot on the relay team.
“When I realized I was going to be on the Olympic relay, I had a laugh-cry moment,” Runge reported. “I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
“I just kept looking at Allison (Schmitt) wondering, ‘is this real?’ It is one of the most incredible feelings. I don’t think it’s fully sunk in yet, being a part of Team USA.”
Runge left Omaha and headed to Atlanta on July 21 for training camp and then it’s on to Rio. Needless to say, she has become a celebrity in Cochranville, a borough of just 668 people in the last census.
“I know most of the people in Cochranville,” Runge said. “It’s fun being from a small town. I don’t mind it at all. I am a country-bumpkin at heart.
“Being an Olympian from anywhere is amazing, but it’s cool to represent a small town in Pennsylvania.”
Runge won’t know what leg of the 4x200 relay she will swim until the coaches decide in Rio, but being an integral part of a team has always appealed to her.
“On that last 50, when it starts to hurt, all I think about is getting my hand to that wall because you are swimming for something greater than yourself,” she said. “With Team USA, we are all swimming for each other.”
Now 6-foot-4, Runge has always been tall, and it’s helped her swimming career over the years. She recalled that her third grade teacher at Octorara Elementary had to wear high heels in order to remain the tallest in the classroom. Her brother, Taylor, is 6-8, and younger sister Maddie is a 6-footer.
“People see me and assume I am a basketball or volleyball player,” Runge said. “They are surprised to hear I am a swimmer.
“It helps because I can catch a lot of water. It kind of slows down my tempo a bit but it feels like I am going fast. I can’t help it that I have a 6-4 wingspan.”
Her parents, Scott and Diane Runge, are planning to attend the Olympics along with her brother. Maddie, however, is in her Plebe Summer at the Naval Academy, and will not.
Runge plans to return to Cochranville for about a week following the Olympics, and the it will be on to the University of Wisconsin for her sophomore season.
“I loved everybody at Cal but it just wasn’t the right fit,” Runge said when asked why she decided to transfer.
“Wisconsin is an up and coming program. The incoming freshmen and myself are a top-10 recruiting class. Plus it’s a beautiful campus, great coaches and I think it’s going to be great.”