She’s Born To Run Hough Finishes Prep Sprinting Career As One Of Area’s Best Ever

When the runners come around the last corner, the burgundy and gold uniform isn’t always in the lead. At the finish line, it almost always is.

The contorted look of determination on Katherine Hough’s face is a mask as she zooms into the straightaway, chews up ground and blasts past rivals as the anchor leg for the state’s fastest 400-meter relay team.

Hidden beneath the facade of University High School’s Red Rocket is an engaging, modest, freckled-face redhead, without the greyhound’s look that would give any hint she is the fastest female runner in Spokane in decades, if not ever.

Hough became the first Greater Spokane League sprinter to win the district 100-meter dash championship all four years of high school last Friday. In fact, the night she won four races, including relays - and was selected queen at the Senior Prom - she moved within just a few 100-meter dashes of finishing with only one loss to a GSL rival in four years to teammate Mary Brock as a freshman.

“I think Katherine is kind of a special person and special people make special athletes,” University coach Steve Llewellyn said. “Katherine, whether it’s tiddly-winks or track and field, tries to do her absolute best.”

Can anyone match her? She has run faster every year since she was in eighth grade, establishing a GSL record this year of 11.9 seconds, a number Llewellyn is uncomfortable with because of a tail wind.

Not to worry. There are no provisions for wind in league records that might have been set on equally blustery days, and Hough has run enough 12-flats lately to erase any doubt she deserves the record. The same can be said for the 200, an event she has only lost once to a GSL runner in three years and set a record in with a windy 22.9 this season.

“It’s probably from hard work,” Hough said of her accomplishments. “You work hard at something you love, and I love track.”

And her accomplishments now include, with relays, 11 district championships, three seconds and, so far, six state placings.

Her father, Pat, always told her to run and have fun. And when it isn’t fun, quit.

She ruled out soccer early (“no coordination”), gave up basketball in junior high because it conflicted with track and ended her volleyball career after an enjoyable year on the sophomore C squad. Next year she’ll run at the University of Idaho and study to be a teacher and coach.

“She’s always been talented,” Llewellyn said. “She set goals and improved every year, which is unusual. It’s more usual if they don’t improve. She’s just like a lot of kids that have had tremendous success. They’ve done all the things they need to do, even if it’s not fun, like cross country. Unfortunately, a lot of others don’t recognize this.

“If she hadn’t trained year-round she wouldn’t have improved that much. She does all the little things that make a difference between good and great kids.”

Did you know, as they say, that for the past two years the best sprinter in Titans history was an also-ran back in the pack during cross country season?

“I gained a lot more respect for people who do long distances,” said Hough, who wrinkled her nose when disclosing she might become a 400 runner in college. “I like the endurance, I have a bigger (training) base to work on. And, I don’t like sitting around.”

Though the 5-foot-4 Hough’s exploits put her in the books in Spokane, her highest placing at state in the 100 is fifth and the competition will be just as fierce this year.

“She’s like a lot of real competitive athletes. Every race, whether they have to run 110 meters or 210, they always think they can catch them,” Llewellyn said. “You don’t teach them that. She doesn’t think about the kids behind her; she thinks about the kids ahead of her.”

Pat Hough said, “She feels if she runs the best she can, there’s no reason to be discouraged. For her, it’s not crossing the tape, it’s if she PR’s.”

One constant rival has been the tall, sleek Fran Green, a senior at Kamiakin who will challenge Hough in the Eastern AAA regional meet at Spokane Falls Community College this weekend. Hough always seems to be a half-step behind Green when beginning with a standing start. However, Hough recently completed one of her patented comebacks as the Titans’ 400 relay anchor, catching and then easing past Green for the win. The winning margin was .02 seconds and Llewellyn has clocked Hough, with a running start for the relay leg, at 10.6 seconds in 100 meters.

“In the 100, so much is on the start,” Llewellyn said. “She won’t be out first, but she’s a great closer. I think she’s the fastest girl in the state from a running start.”

“I honestly don’t know (where the speed came from),” Hough said. “I can remember being in elementary school and beating all the boys.”

Her family is also at a loss.

“I have no idea,” Pat said about the oldest of his three children. “I ran track, but I wasn’t serious about it. She’s just a kid that likes to run. She’s always been fast.”

Her mother Jeanne said, “My personal theory is when she was a toddler, she wanted to be a ballerina and she ran around the house on her toes all the time (supposedly building up her muscles).”

“Seriously,” Pat added, “it’s not so much her structure as her heart and determination. She sets goals and achieves them.”

That’s how she went from a 12.8 as an eighthgrader to 12.5, 12.3 and 12.1 as a junior in an event in which a meter is as good as a mile in cutting time. Her best 200 as a sophomore was 26.4 and 25.3 last year.

“She’s one of the better ones we’ve had in the GSL, no question about it,” Llewellyn said.

Pat said nerves keep him from sitting during Katherine’s races, but he’s easy to find at the finish line, not because he paces or shields his eyes but because of a unique fashion statement.

As part of the first class of freshmen allowed to compete at University while still at junior high, Hough was nervous she wouldn’t be able to find her family at a big high school meet.

“They said, ‘We’ll go to all your meets,’ but I asked, ‘How will I know where you’re sitting?’,” Katherine said. “He came home from work with one of those bright pink, florescent, hats. Now all the other parents sit around him because they know their kids can see them. I wouldn’t let him out of the house with that hat if it wasn’t for track.”

Whether or not that tradition continues, it’s hard for the Hough family to believe this phase of Katherine’s career is nearing an end.

“It’s been an awesome year for her and bittersweet for us,” Jeanne said after watching her daughter win another race.

“I’ve met so many great people through track,” Katherine said. “I didn’t know what to expect … now that I’m a senior … looking back and seeing where I’ve come from, it amazes me.”

Not too many people have gotten to look back to see her.