Itty-Bitty Branta Is Grown Up : She’s Rising Star in Distance Races on World Level

Nine years ago, a knock-kneed, 13-year-old running prodigy from Slinger High in Wisconsin, sat in a grassy field with a reporter.

Cathy Branta was thinner than a stick of gum and during the interview was so shy that Bambi probably would have scared her into a month of silence.

But, Branta had a passion for running and the area around Slinger was an ideal setting, a region just north of Milwaukee where a great glacier had determined the face of the countryside, leaving undulating hills and lush greenery.

The itty-bitty Branta dominated her peers in cross country and track during high school. Then it was an 80-mile journey west to Madison, the state capital, and the University of Wisconsin.

Although the driving time was only about 90 minutes, the competition in the Big Ten was light years ahead of what she had encountered in the Scenic Moraine Conference at Slinger High. And so, for a time, the winning stopped.

But the small-town girl still loved to run 60 miles a week along the shores of Lake Mendota and as she gradually became stronger, her times dropped dramatically.

She has started the third step in her career--attaining success on the national level.

So Sunday night, during the track and field competition at the National Sports Festival here, the same reporter and Branta shared a small chunk of grass next to the track at Mumford Stadium on the campus of Southern University.

The physical changes in the young woman are subtle. She used to weigh in the high 80s, but is up to 105. “But after this weekend, I must be 110 because with that dumb meal ticket, you can eat all the time. They give you a ticket and look out.”

Branta is still reluctant to talk about her recent success, which includes an NCAA cross-country title, an NCAA track double in the 3,000 and 1,500 meters, an indoor victory in New York over Olympic 3,000-meter champion Maricica Puica. She earned a trip to Europe in June, where she ran the second-fastest 5,000 by an American. Mary Decker Slaney had run the fastest ever, but Branta’s time of 15:07.56 was only nine seconds away from the world record.

However, at 22, she is poised and self-assured, befitting a soon-to-be married student teacher, who will settle with her husband-runner-farmer John Easker on a dairy farm in Central Wisconsin.

“It wasn’t a big jump going from college to world-class meets because the competition was always good,” she said. “But going from Class B high school meets to the Big Ten was a surprise.

“I think I won one meet as a freshman and didn’t win for about three years after that. But I never got depressed or anything because my times were always improving.

“Plus, I’ve been lucky, I’ve never been hurt, and late in my junior year I started maturing and then really started to come on.

“I like running, but there are other things in my life now, too, that are just as important. I’ll do it until 1988, but after that, I’ll have to see.”

Another transformation is a sense of humor, especially about herself.

“I’m not sure why I ran so close to the world record in the 5,000 at Helsinki,” she said. “I think the track was short.

“I was really shocked. I figured this was it for me. I kept waiting to die. I don’t have a clock inside my head, but I better learn that. I never know what my splits are, I just run. But I’ve improved my leg speed. Don’t say I’m a plodder. My coach (Peter Tegen) doesn’t like plodders. Say I’m a good closer.”

Branta’s only setback in her impressive season last year was a fourth-place finish in the U.S. 3,000-meter Olympic trials. She was seconds and a choice by Decker away from a berth on the Olympic team.

Slaney, had qualified in both the 1,500 and 3,000. She decided to run in only one. Had she chosen the 1,500 meters, Branta would have been on the team, instead of Missy Kane.

“My coach had talked to Mary’s coach, so I kind of had a hunch she was going for the 3,000, but I wasn’t disappointed,” she said. “In fact it gave me a lot of confidence to beat people I hadn’t beaten before. It was a great opportunity to run against world-class people. It kind of made me believe I could run with anyone.”

Branta didn’t mind Decker’s choice, but it was a strange twist of fate for Decker, who lost her chance for the gold medal with the collision with Zola Budd.

“I don’t know her that well, but she does seem like kind of a crybaby,” Branta said. “I guess if it was me in the Olympics, I would have gotten up again. She wasn’t that far behind and she is a great runner . . . but you don’t know how bad she was hurt, maybe she couldn’t. I would have gotten up no matter what.”

The observation wasn’t meant critically, merely as a statement of fact from the young woman, who as recently as two years ago, held the rest of the running world in awe.

“I didn’t drool on their shoes, but my mouth was open all the time,” she said.

Branta won the Festival 3,000 in a tactical 9:07.01, and is preparing for Japan and the World University Games. She’d like to run a time in the 8:40s and then start setting her sights on Seoul or a world record.

“I never in my wildest dreams thought I had a chance for the Olympics,” she said. “I’ve been at this a long time and it’s coming together in the 3,000 and that’s what I’d like to be ready for in 1988. But this is fun, the traveling and getting to meet people.

“I’m not famous, though, although this one guy in Slinger always puts my name on his little marquee in front of his insurance office. Right at the big Four Corners of Slinger. It’s the big intersection.”

She laughed for a second and shook her head.

“The attention is kind of weird,” she said. “I like it when people don’t know who you are. But it’s nice when they start to notice you, too. I guess I don’t like the extremes, when no one knows you or everybody does.

“I’ve always liked living in the country and I’ll help out on the farm when I’m not teaching, although I haven’t learned how to milk, yet.”