Spring Valley senior Kate Niehaus signed a National Letter of Intent with Stanford earlier today, according to Spring Valley girls cross country coach Kevin Shaw.
Niehaus captured her fourth consecutive 4A state title Nov. 5 and holds the state meet best of 17:36.81.
Stanford is a D-I member of the Pac-10.
Shaw took the time to answer a few questions.
scrunners: What was it like to be at Kate's signing?
shaw: It was exciting, yet a big relief.
scrunners: How did you influence where should would attend school?
shaw: I did not, I did my best to give her unbiased information.
scrunners: Where did she take visits to?
shaw: Stanford, Duke, Princeton and Virginia.
scrunners: Over the four years training Kate, what did you learn about being a coach of an athlete at Kate's caliber and training other cross country athletes?
shaw: Her training is not that much different than the other girls, she is just more in tune with what works best for her and does a good job of relaying that to me.
scrunners: What kind of contact did you have with the college coaches recruiting Kate?
shaw: It depends on the individual coach, most made initial contact but once they talked to Kate I was generally out of the picture.
scrunners: What will you remember the most about Kate over the four years?
shaw: Her trust in our program.
scrunners: What do you see Kate accomplishing at Footlocker South on Nov. 26?
shaw: Running the best race she can run on that day.