Nottingham thrower Holliday excited for her first Penn Relays
L’ville, WW-PS girls; R’ville boys among relay teams to watch
Catalina Holliday hadn’t even thought about throwing the shot put until she got to high school.
In fact, she tried lacrosse first, but when it was clear that wasn’t going to work out, it was suggested to her that she might be a fit for track & field.
The Nottingham High junior has come a long way since as she prepares for her first Penn Relays on Thursday as the 128th annual carnival of track & field takes place this week at the University of Pennsylvania.
“Track and field was the only sport that was still accepting tryouts since they allowed everyone to come on the team without tryouts,” said Holliday, who started at Notre Dame before transferring to Nottingham ahead of her sophomore year. “I tried it and I just fell in love with it instantly.”
Turns out she’s pretty darn good at it, too.
Holliday delivered a sixthplace finish at last spring’s Meet of Champions and followed that up with an outstanding indoor season over the winter that culminated with a second-place finish and 41-10 PR at the MoC.
“She’s a hard worker,” Northstars throws coach Andrew Parsons said. “She’s willing to put the extra effort in. It’s not just done in the two hours of practice. It’s what you do outside practice. She finds private coaches. She does the extra stuff.”
Consider how much better Holliday has gotten since she started throwing.
Her best mark as a freshman at Notre Dame was 31-7.25, and by the time she finished up her sophomore season at Nottingham it was a 39-3.25 at the 2023 AAU Track & Field Club Nationals.
“I worked very hard through the summer and winter,” Holliday said. “… I transitioned to the spin, which helped me have more power. I was able to create a better mindset where if I threw bad on the first throw it wasn’t going to be where I was done on the other ones.”
She’s also threw — no pun intended — herself into the world of shot putting. She got to meet Olympic sliver medalist Raven Saunders last spring and pick her brain about what it takes to get to the top. “Oh my god, it’s Raven Saunders,” she remembers thinking.
“I met her spring of my sophomore year, like beginning of the season when I wasn’t throwing my best,” Holliday said. “She was telling me that I just got to focus on myself, ignore everybody else and come there confident. Don’t come there like I didn’t throw good last week so I’m not going to throw good this week. Even if I throw bad, I can throw better later and when it comes to big meets I’ll throw better.”
Although still early in the season — Holliday competed for the first time in the spring at last weekend’s Mercer Relays and tossed 36-8.5 — the Penn Relays certainly qualifies as a big meet.
“It’s being able to take yourself out of that situation and focus on just yourself,” Holliday said. “Don’t pay attention to anybody else and if you just think about yourself and how you’re improving, you’ll throw better than your best.”
“Getting in that environment and it gets you ready for the next level,” Parsons said. “When you compete against the best, you get better. You are going against the best people out there, and she is one of them. You get to compete with that quality, and the atmosphere of the Penn Relays soaks in.”
Relay teams to watch this week are the Lawrenceville Prep and West Windsor-Plainsboro South girls in the 4×400 and the Robbinsville boys in the 4×100.
The Big Red finished second in the Philadelphia Area race last year when they dropped a 3:55.24 after qualifying for that bonus race with a prep school heat-winning time of 3:56.13. The start list submitted by the team includes juniors Sofia Swindell and Rhianna Scott, both of whom ran last year. Swindell has posted the fastest 200 meter in the state when she went 23.85 at the Spring Break Invitational at IMG.
The Pirates are coming off a big weekend at the Mercer Relays in which they swept to victories in the 4×100, 4×200 and 4×400. The quartet of Adama Turay, Saraiah Hoover, Claire Dumortier and Anastasia Kudin ran all four of those relays, with a 4:02.91 in the 4×400 clocking as the fifth quickest in the state to date. The 4×100 time of 49.72 sits at 14th fastest in the state.
The nine fastest teams from all of Thursday’s 4x400s qualify for the Championship Final on Friday. The leading team from the Philadelphia Public League, Philadelphia Catholic League, PIAA District I, South Jersey and Northern Delaware along with seven wildcards return for the Philadelphia Area final.
Lawrenceville’s Blair Bartlett and West Windsor-Plainsboro North’s Allison Lee are both slotted into the field for the 3000 meter championship. Bartlett, a freshman, has the second best time in New Jersey to date in the 3200 when she clocked 10:34.36 at the Big Red Classic on April 17. Lee, a sophomore, ran her 11:05.32 PR in the 3200 at the Mercer County Championships last spring.
On the boys side, Robbinsville’s 4×100 of Mitchell Shapiro, Maxim Rychkov, LeBron Rose and Mateo Mosquera is coming off a 43.22 at the Mercer Relays, which is good for 10th in the state to date. The boys 4×100 heats go off on Friday, with the nine fastest qualify for the Saturday afternoon’s Championship Final. There are bonus races for the nine quickest International teams, National teams and Northeast teams.
West Windsor-Plainsboro North is on the track Friday morning with its 4×800 relay. The start list includes Subomi Allison, Luke Ferrer, Jordan Andrade and Andrew Sebastian.
Holliday, meanwhile, hopes this is a step toward adding another medal to her collection by the time the Meet of Champs comes around in June.
“I think it would mean a lot because it would mean my hard work pays off,” she said. “I gave up a lot. I gave up my second favorite sport, football, and I had to give up some quality time with friends and family to fix my technique and practice. Getting a medal would mean it all paid off.”