by Sam Fariss
Kate Peters, photo courtesy of West Coast XC
Samantha Fariss did this story for Run by Women #!3, and she thinks that Kate Peters is going places…
Run by Women #13: The next generation
By Sam Fariss
Just 105 miles from the heart of TrackTown USA is a star runner of the upcoming generation. Kate Peters has been dominating both the track and cross country world in Oregon as she blows past girls while proudly wearing her ‘Lake O’ uniform.
Lake Oswego High School, where Peters is a junior, is under two hours away from Hayward Field and has never lacked athletic prowess in central Oregon. The star-studded alumni roster includes Kevin Love; NBA player, Don Schollander; five-time Olympic swimming champion, and Drew Stanton, NFL quarterback just to name a few.
Peters, however, is setting a new standard, and pace, for the school’s athletics program. At the end of the 2020 season, she won the 6A girls’ State Championship – making her the first to do so in school history. LOHS was founded over 70 years ago and has had a girl’s running program for nearly 50 years, going without a champion until Peters.
Not only is she the reigning state champion, but Peters also had a six-race undefeated season, earning her the title of Three Rivers League Champion.
Her state championship performance was done in an astonishing fashion, crossing the finish line at just 17 minutes and 28.70 seconds – just over a 5-minute, 30-second pace.
“Once I hit the two-mile mark, I decided to have some fun and see what I could do the last mile,” Peters said safer her race. “I knew that taking off the last mile would drop most of the pack. I looked behind me with [one kilometer] to go and saw that I had a pretty big gap on second place. At that point, I knew I was probably going to win the race.”
Peters, with a cross country season and two entire track seasons remaining in her high school career, has the opportunity to continue making school history and is staying at LOHS for all of them.
“I was at Lincoln, only for half the first term, and before that, I was at Lakeridge — the other side of the lake. Yeah, I jumped around quite a bit,” Peters said. “Now I’m here and we will not be moving again. I’ll be staying here.”
While Peters is making a name for herself in the Oregon running world, her younger sister, Ana isn’t too far behind. Together, Kate and Ana have the top two times in the Three Rivers League for the 5-kilometer cross country race. For 2021, Kate has the best 5-kilometer time in Oregon and Ana is currently ranked 12th among runners at all levels across the state.
