Sometimes Cassie Peller does not know when to stop.

Now a freshman runner at Marquette, Peller was a workout demon as a cross country and track athlete at Chesterton High School in Valparaiso, Ind.

Peller would often have to be reined in by her coach, Steve Kearney, from overworking herself in practice so that she would still be fresh for meets. Peller would run so hard in practice that Kearney feared she would be out of energy when the competitions finally came around.

"The challenge in coaching her was holding her back," said Kearney, who is also a math teacher at Chesterton. "It would be hard to get her to rest a little bit on the easy days — the recovery days — so she would have her energy back for the next race."

Kearney says that Peller could have been accused of being wise beyond her years when she was in middle school.

"I always told her that she was a good influence on me," Kearney said.

Marquette head coach Dave Uhrich also saw the maturity that made Peller wise beyond her years.

"I could sense that she was already beyond where most high school athletes were in terms of maturity, and she had a sense of direction," Uhrich said.

Peller summoned enough energy in her high school career to earn a spot on the All-State team six times — four in cross country, two in track and field. Her 3200-meter relay team won the state title in both her junior and senior years at Chesterton, making her one of the more celebrated scholastic runners in recent Indiana history.

She took official visits to Miami of Ohio, Butler and Virginia before settling on Marquette.

"This was the best program, academics and track combined," Peller said. "Also, I really liked coach Uhrich and the rest of the girls on the team. You can just see how the girls respect him. It's very individualized training and there are no uptight crazy workouts. He won't let the freshmen do as much so they don't get worn out."

Uhrich had no reason to worry about Peller over-exerting herself.

The freshman was the second-best runner on the women's cross country team this fall behind junior Jodi Jakubek and advanced to the Conference USA Championships as well as the NCAA Championships in Terre Haute, Ind., about 180 miles from her hometown. During the regular season, Peller finished second in four of the seven meets and far exceeded her goal upon entering college, which was simply to come in and place.

"I had the opportunity to see her race at districts, and she was absolutely awesome," Kearney said. "It was the best cross country meet of her life."

Now Peller is switching her focus from the off-road cross country races, which are much longer and more physical than the events in which she will compete during the winter and spring — the 800-meter run and the mile.

"There's a huge difference between the two," Peller said. "You train two completely different ways, and they're really two completely different sports. We didn't do much speed work during the fall, and now I'm working to get it back."

Initial returns on Peller's transition between sports have been stellar, evident by her first-place finish in the 800 in the Minnesota Gold Country Classic this weekend at Minnesota.

"It has just been a matter of getting more experience," Peller said of her transition between cross country and track and field at the college level.

"I'm more of an attacker now and I've lost the starry-eyed feeling I had at the beginning of cross country."

Uhrich has also been impressed at the speed with which Peller has adjusted to running in college.

"I saw her run a lot and spoke to her on the phone often when she was in high school, and I thought that she would be the kind of kid who could come in immediately and have an impact," he said, "but she's adjusted even more quickly than I thought she would."

Peller will compete in both the 800 and the mile during the outdoor season and has different goals set for herself now than she did during cross country.

"My goals now are more time barriers," Peller said. "I want to score as high as possible in conference meets so that our team can go as far as we can. In cross country the goals are more individual, but in track it's more of a team goal."

Kearney has very lofty goals for his prize pupil and thinks that Peller's potential is almost unlimited.

"Not everyone would say this, but I can say that we'll all say we were proud to know her back when," Kearney said. "She's shown that she has the endurance to carry her further and further. I think she'll be running on the international level. It might be in the back of her mind — I tried to put it there."

Uhrich is more conservative with his outlook.

"I think it's too early to tell that far in the future, but she certainly has a high ceiling and we just try to set immediate goals and if she improves each year she'll be running at a very high level."

This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on Jan. 27 2005.