Higginson on U.S. team for Jr. World meet
BY TIM MORRIS Staff Writer
The IAAF World Junior Track and Field Championship will be more than a competition to Ashley Higginson.

It will be a chance for the Princeton University sophomore, who starred at Colts Neck High School, and her family to get in touch with their roots.

Higginson's mother, Sophie, is a Polish immigrant who has never returned to her native country, and her father, John, has Polish roots as well.

The family will be traveling to Poland this week because Ashley made the USA Track & Field Junior 19-and-Under team that will represent America at the World Junior Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland, July 8-13.

"I'm really excited to go," said Higginson. "I've wanted to do this since winter when I learned the championships were in Poland.

"It's really a dream come true," she added. "I'm looking forward to it. Running has given me so many opportunities."

Higginson fulfilled her dream at the USA Track & Field Junior National Championships in Columbus, Ohio, where she finished second in the women's 5,000 meters on June 21. Only the top two finishers in each event made the U.S. Team.

The week before the Junior Nationals, Higginson ran the 5K at the NCAA Championships in Des Moines, Iowa. Although she didn't qualify for the final (she was seventh in her heat), it was an educational experience.

"It was a poorly run race on my part," she said. "They ran really slow and kicked the last mile. It taught me to push with a mile to go.

"It was a great experience," she added. "I got to see what it takes at the next level."

In one week, Higginson went from being one of the youngest competitors at the NCAA to the one of the oldest at the Junior championships. It made her run a more aggressive race, she said, staying with the leaders throughout and taking the lead with 600 meters remaining. Catherine White of Arkansas was able to catch her before the line, but no one else did, securing one of the two spots open on the team to her. Higginson ran a 16:33.83 behind White's 16:32.03.

Higginson will leave with the U.S. team on July 4 and catch up with her parents there. After the championships, she and her parents will spend time traveling around Poland.

Competing at the Junior World Championships completes what was a great freshman year for the former Cougar, and it wasn't all confined to the athletic arena.

"It's been one blessing after another," she said. "It taught me life's lessons. I'm not in a small pond anymore. I'm finding out who I really am."

This spring, Higginson won the Heps (Ivy League) 5,000 title and qualified as a "wild card" for the NCAA Championships after finishing sixth at the NCAA East Regional. Princeton won Ivy titles in cross country and indoor track.

When she returns from Poland, Higginson will begin her build-up to the cross country season. Last fall, the Princeton women won the Mid-Atlantic Regional title and were 14th at the NCAA Championships. They were ranked as high as No. 4 in the country, with Higginson consistently one of the team's top scorers.