The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
2020 Top Track and Field Performers: Kathryn Gillespie
04.20.2020 | Track & Field / Cross Country
The senior distance runner won three Big 12 titles in her first year as a Longhorn.
AUSTIN, Texas – Texas Track and Field standout Kathryn Gillespie, a graduate transfer from Harvard, left her name scattered in the program's record book during her first season on the Forty Acres. The Dollar, Scotland native burst onto the scene with an All-Big 12 Cross Country season, set a school record in the indoor mile and won three conference titles (800m, Mile, DMR) at the Big 12 Indoor Championships.
Gillespie, along with teammates Julien Alfred (60m, 200m, 4x400m) and Brooke Jaworski (600yd, 4x400m, DMR), is the first Longhorn to win three conference titles indoors in the same season since Marshevet Hooker in 2006. She won the 800-meter conference title behind a 2:06.33 in the final at the Big 12 Championships, the fastest time by a Big 12 competitor this season. Gillespie's 4:36.89 in the Big 12 mile final also ranked as the second-fastest in school history, behind only her school record that she set earlier in the 2020 season.
Gillepsie's record-breaking mile – a 4:34.64 effort – came at the John Thomas Terrier Classic in Boston on Jan. 24. There, she shattered Mary Beth Hamilton's previous school record by four-and-a-half seconds. The senior was also a part UT's school-record DMR team (11:04.81), which broke the previous Longhorn-best by six seconds at the Razorback Invitational one week later. Gillespie ran the mile leg of that race in Fayetteville.
Her success in 800-meter competition also placed her among the best in Texas history. Her Big 12 title-winning mark made her the fourth-best half-mile performer in program history, and she was a part of UT's 4x800-meter relay team that posted the fifth-fastest time by a Longhorn squad in the event. Texas' 4x800-meter mark was the school's fastest in the event since 1992.
During the Cross Country season, Gillespie was one of UT's top performers every time out. She opened with back-to-back second-place finishes in the Bear Twilight and Texas Invitational. Later, she posted three-straight top-15 finishes at the Chile Pepper Festival (12th), Big 12 Championships (4th) and South Central Regional (9th). Gillespie's fourth-place finish at the Big 12 meet in Waco helped her become one of four Longhorns to earn All-Big 12 honors.
Players Mentioned
