After winning four KHSAA championships during her prep years, the Bowling Green High School product traded purple for red, deciding to continue her education and athletic career with head coach Dr. Curtiss Long in her home town at Western Kentucky University, requiring a move of mere miles from her home on the south side of Bowling Green to the Hill.
Following in her brother’s footsteps, Nichols took up running, and was unaware that the family had stronger ties to the sport until several years after beginning her career. Her father, Dale, was a state champion at Elizabethtown High School and had a collegiate running career at the University of Kentucky. The influence of her parents are important to Nichols, and they can often be found at Western’s meets, be it the race in Bowling Green at the WKU’s home cross country course Kereiakes Park, or as far away as Mike Long Track at Florida State. Nichols finds comfort and inspiration seeing her parents as she ascends a hill in cross country or comes around the turn on the track. “It calms me to have them there,” Nichols says, “both for the good races and the bad. Whether I come in last or first, they are always supporting me. They don’t put any pressure on me, I just know they are going to be happy for me.”
Nichols has started what one might call a trend on the Hill. A glance at the 2004 WKU cross country roster shows that five Lady Toppers call Bowling Green home, while only two originate from outside the commonwealth. For Long, it is an important attribute to the program. “Coaches would like to have outstanding local talent, but it is an extremely hard set of circumstances in college when you are drawing from all over the state, region, country and even internationally,” Long says. “So it is unusual to see a bubble of talent like we are enjoying at the moment.” But Long does not take the credit for the emergence of such valuable local athletes into the program. “It is the result of outstanding work by [women’s distance coach] Michelle Murphy Scott, because we have athletes who have come in and grown within the program.”
Long is the first to admit that Nichols has been instrumental in the program’s recruiting success. “There is no doubt about it that Cara has had a major impact on bringing more local talent into the program. She was very well known in the state and having Cara here — coupled with Western’s tradition, the success Michelle has had over the years and the type of people we have in the program — were all instrumental in our young athletes making a decision to come here to go to school.”
Since coming to the Hill in the fall of 2001, Scott has been perhaps the most influential catalyst in Nichols’ success. An exceptional runner herself, Scott was Western’s Female Athlete of the Year in 1993 after earning four Sun Belt titles that academic year. Nichols believes Scott’s support and knowledge comes largely from her own success as a Lady Topper. “She understands where I am coming from when it comes to running because she has been there.” The relationship is much more than just one of player and coach, as the two have become close friends.
However, the success Nichols and her mentor share on the track is not the only common thread between the two. During her collegiate career at WKU, Scott was named to the SBC All-Academic Team four times. Nichols has also had her share of success in the classroom, as she was named to the CoSDIA Academic All-District team last season. Also doubling as a tenured professor in Western’s physical education department, Long recognizes Nichols’ blend of superiority both academically and athletically. “Her type of personality is not one that you come across all that often. She is an outstanding scholar and the epitome of the NCAA student-athlete. When you have the entire package, and you bundle that with a competitive spirit that is second to none, you have a combination that is simply a joy for a coach to work with.”
Already a two-time all-league performer in cross country, Nichols is looking to add her third Saturday as the Lady Toppers defend their conference title at the 2004 Sun Belt Cross Country Championships in Little Rock, Ark. Leading the league over both 5,000 and 6,000 meters, Nichols is favored to take home the individual crown, but Long does not believe it will have a negative effect on his veteran. “Cara is used to being targeted as the favorite, so I don’t think that is an issue.”
But, individual accolades do not concern Nichols. Five Lady Toppers find themselves on the league’s top-10 list, and she would like to see her young teammates be successful on the conference stage. After the Pre-NCAA meet Oct. 16 in Terre Haute, Ind., Nichols has added confidence in her peers. “Everyone is running close together, so if someone is having an off day, someone else will step up.”
As is the life of a distance runner, Nichols’ career will not end at the conclusion of the cross country season. The indoor track and field campaign begins in early December while the outdoor season begins in March, and Nichols has experienced tremendous success in those realms as well. She is a four-time all-SBC performer on the indoor track, including one individual championship. Outdoors, Nichols has had even greater success. In 2003 she was the meet’s top point scorer at the SBC Championships and has qualified for the NCAA Mideast Regional in the 1,500 meters both years of the meet’s existence.
Following graduation, Nichols plans on attending UK’s physical therapy school and will undoubtedly continue running. But, she realizes her postgraduate work will bring about new experiences. “It will be my real college experience, because I have always been right here at home. It will be weird, but it will be fun. I am looking forward to it.”
