What makes Kassi Andersen tick? What drives one of the world's top female steeplechasers?
If we could open a Velcro seam and peek into the heart and mind of this BYU junior, perhaps we'd all understand what it is that fuels the legs of the defending NCAA champion, who has posted the fastest time (9:48) in the event this year.
Or, we could just ask those who know her best: her parents, Randy and Kathy Andersen, and veteran track coach Patrick Shane.
Kassi Andersen has always been driven, determined and competitive, according to her mom. She remembers her first race, a competition among kindergarten kids in Las Vegas, who had to hold the hand of a parent as they crossed the finish line. Kassi won, and yes, she hung on to her mother's hand all the way.
"It set a precedent in her mind," said Kathy. "It was her sport, she would run, and she wanted to win."
Since then, she has worked her guts out. At Provo High, she won eight track titles, including state championship cross country medals as a junior and senior. She doesn't shirk the hard stuff. She covers her miles and intervals like clockwork and the road work comes, mile after mile, whether it's a snow or windstorm.
Since that first childhood victory, Andersen has just kept winning, fueled by a philosophy of sorts from her grandfather, former LDS general authority Hartman Rector Jr., a strand or two of DNA and a healthy competitive push from five older brothers.
While Kathy believes her daughter may get her determination from her, the athletic ability comes from her father. Randy was the Nevada state cross country champion his senior year and posted a 4:10 mile while at Las Vegas High.
This outdoor season, Kassi Andersen already has defeated Toledo's Briana Schook, the defending United States champion, at the Cardinal Invitational and is on track to break the U.S. record in the steeplechase (9:41), held by former Cougar Elizabeth Jackson. The NCAA championship meet record holder in the steeplechase at 9:44, Andersen is expected to surpass the world's best time by an NCAA athlete, a 9:42 by BYU junior Michaela Mannova, a native of the Czech Republic, who posted that time in Europe last June.
Grandfather Rector, a former Navy serviceman, always preached to his children and grandchildren and over the pulpit how important it was to win — to win in life — and that God would direct their path if they'd only follow Him.
The word "win" kind of chimed a chord in Kassi Andersen.
Elder Rector used to quote a poem in his sermons, a prose by an unknown author, to emphasize the importance of victory. The words have been embedded into Kassi Anderson from the time she could crawl.
It goes something like this:
If you want something bad enough to go out and fight for it
Work day and night for it,
Give up your time, your peace and your sleep for it —
If only the desire of it
Makes you mad enough never to tire of it —
Makes you hold all things tawdry and cheap for it;
If life seems all empty and useless without it,
And all that you scheme and dream is about it —
If gladly you'd sweat, fret for it, plan for it,
Lose all your terror of evil or man for it —
If you'll simply go after the thing that you want
With all your capacity, strength and sagacity,
Faith, hope and confidence, stern pertinacity —
If neither sickness or pain of body or brain
Can keep you away from the thing that you want;
If dogged and grim you besiege and beset it —
You'll Get It. You'll Get it!
When Andersen beat Schook at Stanford, she followed a race plan by coach Shane to perfection. "And she still had a lot of run in her," Shane said.
"If she stays healthy, if she runs well, in a few weeks at Northridge and the NCAA championships, she could break the American record — no question."
Shane sees the drive in Andersen, and he's been around the best. His college roommate was 400-meter hurdle world record holder Ralph Mann, and one of his coaches was Olympian L.J. Silvester.
"All the world-class athletes I've been around are driven and have that attribute, and I see it in Kassi, no question," Shane said. "To be driven may not be absolutely necessary, but it's an attribute you see in the best. You need it to train day after day, month after month, year after year to get what you want.
"It isn't enough to be driven. There are probably a lot of over-motivated, compulsive-driven people who are not going to be All-Americans. But Kassi has that, plus she has a tremendous genetic talent to go with it. She is 5-foot-11 and being tall adds to her ability. She has great mechanical form and execution."
There's a price to be paid for the determination and drive. Sometimes social life and friends are put on the back burner.
"You give up a lot," Shane said. "But it is that quality of fierce determination that is necessary to reach great heights in athletics."
Another key is her workout partners. They include Jackson, the American record holder, and Mannova. These are national-caliber partners who are pushing one another to succeed.
Right down Andersen's alley.
A year ago, when she won the NCAA 3,000m steeplechase, she'd only run that event four times before.
"That was most the fun in a race she's ever had, and it meant a lot to her," Kathy said.
That drive isn't always a plus. Kathy said her daughter sometimes expects too much of herself: "She's always been a determined little girl. Her brothers and sisters would sometimes tell her to lighten up a little. But the fact she's so determined makes her the winner she is. She doesn't like to complain and that can go to a fault at times because nobody knows she's hurting. She can be a little too driven."
And some of us have trouble getting off the couch.
What makes Kassi Andersen tick? A kind of atomic clock of sorts. Too bad we all can't have it. She's got it, a sort of overdrive gear. Chances are, she could probably take it off the track and apply it to anything, from gardening to the stock market.
Grandpa Rector must be pleased. His sermon definitely soaked in with Kassi.
E-mail: dharmon@desnews.com