Up Close: Catarina Rocha Peabody H.S.
The talent has always been there for Peabody’s Catarina Rocha, but it’s probably her level-headed approach to cross country and track that has set her apart from the cluster of elite female runners in Massachusetts.
For starters, don’t tell Rocha she’s the girl with the bulls eye on her back that the rest of the state is gunning for. As far as she’s concerned, there are too many good runners in Massachusetts for her to think that she’s the clear favorite. As for the pressure to perform well, it just isn’t there. Rocha trains hard and lets the chips fall where they may.
“I don’t feel any pressure,” said Rocha on a recent overcast day at the Peabody High track. “I wouldn’t say I’m the best, or whatever, in the state. There’s still really good milers and 2 milers out there. The 2 miler that won indoors (Hingham’s Julie McConville) is really good. I’ve never run against her but from what I’ve seen she looks really good. I’ll try to do my thing and pay attention to the really good girls.”
Rocha may not feel like the girl to beat but the rest of the state more than likely feels otherwise. The Peabody junior’s climb to the top has been meteoric since she ran a swift 5:06.52 to finish fourth in the Div. 1 indoor championships as a freshman.
Rocha went on to finish second in the Div.1 championships outdoors in 5:09.37 and then made a decision that would ultimately change the landscape of girls cross country in Massachusetts. In surprising move to those who knew her the best, Rocha gave up soccer in the fall for cross country. The decision even took her parents off guard
“They didn’t put any pressure on me to make a decision,” Rocha said. “I made my own decision. They thought I was going to play soccer again.”
To say Rocha comes from a strong family of runners is a gross understatement. Her family is loaded with runners who put up impressive stats in high school and college.
Her mother, Gina, starred in cross country and track at Peabody in the mid 1980s and Joe was the state 2 mile champion in the outdoor 2 mile his senior year in 9:09. He went on to achieve All-American status at Boston College. Rocha’s uncle, Fernando Braz also coaches at Peabody High. Fernando was Massachusetts’ next great cross country runner after Alberto Salazar, coming away with a pair of state championships in 1978 and 1979. Her other uncle, Helga, was an All-American at Southeastern Massachusetts University in Dartmouth.
Once she was on the cross country team her sophomore year, no one was surprised by her results. Rocha ran a strong race in the Div. 1 state meet as a sophomore on the Gardner Golf Course layout, chasing Lincoln-Sudbury standout Andrea Keklak across the finish line to take second. She wasn’t done with her season yet though. Rocha proved she was one of the best in the Northeast as well when she cracked the top 10 in the Foot Locker Northeast Regionals to earn a trip to the national championships in San Diego’s Balboa Park. She was a none-too-shabby thirty first against the best cross country runners in the United States.
Whatever came out of her Foot Locker experience her first time around would have been viewed as nothing but positive to Rocha and her coach, her father Joe Rocha. She ran it as a learning experience to get a feel for truly elite competition at both the regional and national level.
With her rookie cross country season in the books and some experience under her belt, Rocha had arguably the most dominant fall campaign as any female runner in Massachusetts history. Running on the familiar Franklin Park layout, Rocha registered runaway victories in both the Div. 1 Emass and state title races.
Her approach to the Foot Locker race was more focused her junior year as well. Rocha was up front early in the qualifier and easily earned a trip to the finals with a third-place finish. Her performance at the nationals was superb. Rocha sprinted hard over the final 600 yards to finish a gleaming seventh overall.
Rocha concentrated on the mile during the indoor season and the results were just as impressive as what she accomplished in the fall. She clocked a very strong 4:53.89 in the Coaches Elite Invitational for a big win and after running 5:05 in a dual meet on Peabody’s 11 laps to the mile field house oval, Rocha was an easy winner in the Div. 1 mile with another fast time of 4:55.76.
Rocha saved her best race, though, for the state meet. She took the lead from the gun at the Reggie Lewis Center and quickly put distance between herself and the rest of the field. The only runner to challenge her was Foxboro freshman Liz Holmes. Holmes said after the race that her strategy was to stay as close to Rocha for as long as she could. If she did that, she said, she was sure to run a fast time.
Holmes played the race perfectly. She shadowed Rocha for five laps and held on to take second with a 4:55, a phenomenal time for a freshman. The race was never close though as Rocha sprinted across the finish in a meet record of 4:50.58. Ironically, her time bettered the previous mark set in 1981 by Lesley Welch, also from Peabody.
Rocha knew Holmes was close but had no idea she had a good 50 yards on the rest of a very impressive field. “I felt strong,” she said. “The whole race was fast and I just kept going. I knew she was coming and she’s really good”
After a long cross country season and an equally long indoor campaign, Rocha talked things over with her dad and made the decision not to compete at the indoor nationals at the prestigious armory in New York City. It was Hingham’s Julie McConville who drew the line in the sand against Rocha with a very quick time of 10:36, five seconds faster than Rocha’s personal best of 10:41 she ran last June to take fourth at New Englands.
Rocha is prepping to defend her Div. 1 and state titles in the 2 mile and fully expects McConville and North Andover’s Maggie Mullins to be the girls to beat. The workouts she is doing under the watchful eye of her father are designed to give her breakaway strength over the final mile of the 2 mile.
Rocha knows she doesn’t have to run fast until June. She’s concentrating on her workouts and some tough upcoming dual meets against Marblehead, Beverly, Danvers and Swampscott.
Rocha intends to be at the state meet and nothing would make her more happy than to have teammates along for the ride. “I would love to bring a lot of girls to Div. 1 and maybe go to all-states,” she said. “That would be awesome.”
