Coast to Coast: Holly Cavalluzzo and Kristiane Width
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CORVALLIS, Ore. – In the past year the Oregon State cross country and track and field programs have taken huge strides on many fronts.
Last fall, the Beavers unveiled the Whyte Track and Field Center, a new home featuring one of the finest surfaces in the world, and in the spring OSU hosted the first collegiate track and field meets in Corvallis in 25 years. Beyond the infrastructure improvements, the Beavers expanded their event areas on the field of competition last season, entering student-athletes in the throws and horizontal jumps for the first time since the late 1980’s.
However, Oregon State’s biggest growth may have occurred in February, when head coach Kelly Sullivan and his staff ventured into a northeast region stacked with talent and signed two premier distance runners from the state of New York, Holly Cavalluzzo and Kristiane Width.
Cavalluzzo and Width, who both possess top-line ability, have decidedly different backgrounds, yet both have found a home on the other side of the country at Oregon State.
Cavalluzzo is one of seven siblings from a large family in Montgomery, N.Y., a small town of about 4,000 people located 60 miles northwest of New York City. Admittedly not a fan of the sport at the outset, she started her running career in the seventh grade when she went out on a run with her older sister and only improved from there.
She would train with her sister, Jaclyn, during summers, as the elder Cavalluzzo ran for four years at the University of Buffalo and Holly parlayed that start into an extremely successful prep career at Valley Central High School. She PR’d in the 3,000m at the New York State Championships in 2013, running 9:51.96 to place fourth and PR’d in the 1,500m at the state meet in 2012 with a time of 4:31.71, again good enough for fourth.
So how and why did someone with Cavalluzzo’s ability end up in Corvallis?
“I first heard of Oregon State when I got the recruitment letter and never really thought I’d come here to be quite honest,” she said. “I didn’t know anything about it and I didn’t want to go that far away, but I came here and everything just changed. I loved it right away.”
A rational young mind, Cavalluzzo realized joining her siblings at the University of Buffalo would be a six-hour drive away from her home in Montgomery, while branching out and joining the Beavers would put her the same distance away, albeit by plane.
The program’s steady growth under Sullivan, physical evidence of which exists in its new facility, coupled with improving results and times, also attracted the young New Yorker to go west.
“I was aware of the track at first and then seeing the pictures and how much the community was getting involved with everything was great,” Cavalluzzo added. “When I first heard of the program coming back in 2004 and saw how well everybody has been doing I said to myself, ‘Wow, this team is going to be amazing in a couple of years.’ Just to contribute to that success is an awesome feeling.”
That similar desire to contribute and make a mark at Oregon State is what drew Kristiane Width to the banks of the Willamette River.
Width, born in Norway and the daughter of a Norwegian diplomat has taken a bit of a more circuitous route to Oregon State than her freshman counterpart. She lived in her home country for five years, before moving to Sweden for the next half-decade. Following a five-year stint in Finland, the Widths moved to New York, where her father worked for the Norwegian mission, and Kristiane attended United Nations International School.
Understandably for someone as well-traveled as she, Width speaks five languages: Norwegian, Finnish, English, Swedish and German.
Her geographical movement mirrors her involvement with the sport of running. Width began at the young age of six in 1K races for kids, but upon moving to Finland focused on soccer all-year-round. Width returned to running when she arrived in the United States, playing soccer in the fall and competing in track during the winter and spring seasons.
“I didn’t even think about staying in the US,” she said. “When I arrived in New York I hated it. I was at the teenage stage where you don’t want anything to change and I wanted to go back [to Europe]. But after finishing second at states my junior year [3,000m; 9:57.77], I saw that there was opportunity for me to take my running further.”
Width visited three schools before ultimately deciding to come to Oregon State, excited for the challenge of pushing the Beaver program forward.
“The three schools and were all very different,” Width added. “But I like how Oregon State is like an underdog in the Pac-12 because it’s the best conference in the country. The feeling that you can get to contribute to such a program is something that is quite amazing – to make history.”
Width ran her 3,000m PR of 9:50.94 at the Nordic Championships in Espoo, Finland in August 2013, finishing sixth, an unexpected result after only going through summer training. Earlier last year, she posted another big surprise when she finished second and PR’d in the indoor mile (4:54.59) at the prestigious Millrose Games.
“I was ranked as the lowest coming into the race,” Width said. “That underdog situation is something that inspires me to do better.”
Cavalluzzo and Width weren’t acquainted until they ran against each other at the New York State Championships in 2012.
Holly visited Corvallis in October 2012, gave her verbal commitment to Oregon State first and then reconnected with Width through Facebook saying how much she liked the school. Width made her visit that December and reached the same conclusion, ensuring the Beavers inked two of the top names from back east.
“At first [when I committed] no one really knew Oregon State at home,” Cavalluzzo said. “But then I came back with a shirt and wore it to school and everyone was so excited. It was really an awesome feeling. Kristiane came to watch one of my races at The Armory [right before we signed] so we were able to see each other and get to know each other a bit. Then we saw an Oregon State hat that somebody was wearing and he immediately came up to us and took a picture. It was great.”
Just two races into their Oregon State careers, the pair are living up to their billing. Cavalluzzo led the Beavers and finished third in the season-opening race at the PSU Viking Invitational on Sept. 6 and ran the eighth-fastest 6,000m time in school history at the Sundodger Invitational on Sept. 14 (21:15).
Width, who because of her love for soccer had never run a cross country race before this season, has also equipped herself well in the Orange and Black. She finished 10th at the Viking Classic in 16:49 and 21st at the Sundodger Invite in 21:53, placing herself amongst Oregon State’s scorers in both races.
“Everybody is so close,” Cavalluzzo said of this year’s team. “The team is so together, everybody is working hard in practice and everything is going well to start the season.”
Cavalluzzo and Width, along with the rest of their teammates, will have their biggest test yet this coming Friday when they race at the NCAA Inter-Regional Jamboree in Sacramento, Calif. Oregon State is currently ranked No. 7 in the West Region by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA), their highest recognition in five years. The six schools ahead of OSU are all nationally ranked with the top four hailing from the Pac-12.
