Kassie Parker is one of the best athletes in D-III track and field history, and she left no stone unturned in her senior season at Loras College. She added to her incredible achievements by winning and breaking the D-III record in the 5000m at the NCAA Track and Field Division III Outdoor National Championships. She also won the 10,000m at the same meet.
On the cross-country course, Parker won two national titles as a member of the Loras College cross country team, and she won seven combined national titles in her career (five outdoor, two indoor.)
Parker recapped her collegiate career recently in our conversation below.
Dom: Now that you’ve had some time, well, assuming you’ve had some time to sit down and reflect on just the craziness of your senior season, and even your collegiate career, how you feel, what emotions are you feeling has it also, again, just amazing things that you were able to accomplish?
Kassie: Yeah, it definitely has sunk in. And I think just nationals just kind of topped it off and was a great blessing just to win the 10k and 5k. And come off a really good season. And I know my coaches and I, we want to do that, because I haven’t done that one yet. Winning the 10k and 5k minus a meet. So we’re kind of excited about that. And yeah, and all the things that I’ve accomplished, it was a pretty wild season, but it was fun.
Dom: From an athlete’s point of view, how hard is it to not just double in the 10k and 5k – I know they’re somewhat similar, obviously, you know, one is a greater distance. But how tough is it mentally and just emotionally to come back from winning one event, and to have the same dominance in the next event?
Kassie: The 10k and 5k is kind of hard, physically and mentally. Earlier in the season – I ran 10K’s before and it takes like a week or two just to get back to feeling 100%. So doing that in the same meet in less than three days is kind of worrisome a little bit. In your mind, you feel like you’re gonna be tired, you know your legs are gonna be a little bit heavy. So I mean, just trying to recover the best you can, and that’s what I kind of did at nationals. I just tried to recover the best I could, I think a little bit held that. Yes, the 10k was fast – it wasn’t close to my PR. So my legs kind of were a little bit more fresh than the other girls that maybe were in the 10k and PRed. Just because I know from experience PR in a 10k just takes a lot out of you. But I mean, everyone doubled back and did really good in the 5k. It was just really hot conditions, but just trying to mentally prepare yourself knowing that your competitors also aren’t fresh. And you’re just kind of like on the same page level. And it just kind of starts at that point. Everyone’s had a race on their legs, probably all feeling the same way. So just kind of work with it.
Dom: You mentioned that you want it to come in to not just the season but the NCAA championship and break that 5k record. And you were able to accomplish that one of many, many things that you were able to accomplish throughout your career. What was that moment like achieving that goal? And we’ll just leave it at that. What was it like achieving that goal?
Kassie: It was pretty spectacular, even though it was 0.4 seconds. I did want to break it by a larger margin. But I mean, just in all, still breaking it and getting that feeling that you know, that started six years ago and finally achieving that goal was just an amazing feeling. I was a little worried when we’re racing it because I knew I fell off pace a little bit. And so on my last lap, I did like a sprinter’s lean. And I was like sitting at the finish line. I was like, I don’t know if I got it and I was freaking out. And then once we realized it was like point 00 We were like oh, that’s that’s for sure it.
Dom: How upset would you have been if you did not get it?
Kassie: I would’ve been really upset. It was funny though, because all my teammates were also watching it, and they knew that I was going for the record. And I think after the first girl finished, she won the race – they kind of cut off the stream and kind of followed her, so they didn’t really know how everyone else finished, and they didn’t have live results. And I think it glitched out or something, so everyone was freaking out back home. But it just still felt like I had my teammates’ support from back home. And I just had to try to remember that when I’m racing, I’m not doing this for me, I’m also doing it for my teammates that support me, my family that loves me, my coaches.
Dom: I feel like Loras needs to just name a building or a track or something on that campus specifically dedicated to you and just the amazing things that you’ve done in your six years at that program. You accomplished so much – the record book, pretty much with all the distance races is Kassie Parker. No one else. And it’s just incredible to see. When you kind of take an overview of your entire career, did you ever think that you would accomplish as much as you did? Obviously, you have your goals, and we talked about it awhile back, but just now that it’s finished, can you say that I expected this, or this exceeded my wildest imagination?
Kassie: I would say it probably exceeded my imaginations and my thoughts and goals, because my goals were always to be at the highest level I could be – a national champion and national title record holder. But you know in the moment you don’t really think about it as much until months and years have passed. But yeah, just looking back now, yeah, I definitely think it exceeded because I just remember all those times where I didn’t have a good workout, and all those times you just kind of want to give up or quit in the middle of a run. It’s just kind of like the mentality of the sport. But I think everyone’s definitely had those. But yeah, looking back, week after week, month after month, year after year. I didn’t think I would exceed this far. But I definitely think I exceeded my goals.
Dom: So there’s this stigma. And I want to be careful how I say this, but Division II, Division III, it does not compare to Division I, that’s kind of the mindset that people might have. And this year, whether it was in various performances in the sprints prove that that’s not the case, because there was some serious running going on. But you have been so consistent throughout your career, you’ve competed against D-I athletes in certain meets, and you’ve beaten them and you’ve ran incredible times. Do you feel like the things that you were able to accomplish in your career change the way that people view or how they should view athletes in those lower divisions, specifically the stigma that they cannot run with some of the ones at the higher programs and Division I?
Kassie: For sure. I mean, you have to think about resources and family and kind of location, that’s a huge factor. Where some people just might feel more comfortable going to a D-III school or D-II school. But it’s definitely very doable for all the divisions to come together at some point or another. I don’t know, it’s fun to better yourself and have those races where you’re racing with some of the best in the country. And I definitely think that having those races with some D-I girls definitely has helped push myself, where I might not have been able to in any other race.
Dom: What are you most proud of, of all the things that you’ve accomplished?
Kassie: I would probably say, the 5k and 10k national records, and my indoor season from 2022, where I did the one the 5k, 3k and runner up DMR.
Dom: Why did those stand out? In particular?
Kassie: Um, I don’t really know. I think it was just all the excitement behind the indoor meet. I don’t think anyone really has ever done like the 5k, 3k and another race and being able to come up on top on both of those as well as a runner up in the DMR – I think it was just super exciting that it’s doable to do all three races like that. And then we won the first indoor national title at Loras. So that was super exciting and just being a part of that. And then you know, the 10k and 5k just finally achieving the goals that I’ve always dreamed of.
Dom: How did you celebrate? Just after you won the 5k after you won the 10k? What was that celebration like? Did you eat something really unhealthy? Did you go to a concert? Did you sleep? You just chill? Like, what did you do?
Kassie: Well, I rode back with my fiance and we stopped at the Cheesecake Factory. And I got a cheesecake because I’ve never been to Cheesecake Factory. So I was like, I really want to go. And then I was like, of course I have to get the cheesecake.
