Union Catholic (NJ) junior Paige Sheppard is one of the nation’s brightest middle distance stars. Sheppard won the New Balance Nationals Outdoor title in the mile last summer before following it up with the indoor 800m title in March, as well as a handful of distance medley relay crowns with her UC teammates. She currently has the fastest 800m time in the country and ran a U.S. No. 8 all-time 1600m days after recording this interview at 4:28.77.

This summer, though, Sheppard is shifting her primary goals away from NBNO and focusing on the U.S. Junior Championships, held the same weekend on the opposite side of the country in Eugene. Sheppard sat down with CITIUS MAG to breakdown the motivations behind that decision, talk about what this season has taught her about herself as a racer, and give insights on her early decision to commit to run collegiately at Stanford University.

The following interview has been edited lightly for length and clarity.

CITIUS MAG: Paige, you’ve put together a really impressive outdoor season so far. You haven’t been racing a ton, but you’ve made the ones you have count. As we’re really getting into the meat of the postseason now, how are you feeling about your junior spring so far?

Paige Sheppard: I’m feeling really excited. Over these past two years, the Track Night NYC meet that New Balance helps host has been a benchmark for me. Last year, that’s when I had a really big drop from 2:06 to 2:03, and then eventually to the 2:01 that I ran. This year, I wanted the same thing, to use it as a benchmark for the rest of the season and see where the fitness was, and I ran a great 2:02 against Natalie Dumas and Jane Hickey. It’s just been a great jumping-off point and I can’t wait to see where that takes me.

You’ve had some really strong relay action as well, winning at Penn and Arcadia, but the 800m has been what you’ve been focusing on individually this year. Going back to your 2:05.07 win at Arcadia over a great athlete in Braelyn Combe, what did you learn from that race in setting up your outdoor season with a really strong start?

It kind of taught me that just because I won indoors last year and had a great chance at running the 800m last year doesn’t mean that every race is necessarily mine, and there’s going to be opportunities where it’s going to come to the line and I’m gonna need to really dig deep. I think it was really great practice for U20s down the line. There’s gonna be races like that where it’s gonna take a lot more grit. It didn’t play out exactly as I wanted to—I think we went out in 64, so, really slow for the level of the field I was going up against—but it offered a lot of opportunities for me to learn and grow and I’m definitely taking that with me.

Does being able to win in that way build even a little more confidence for you knowing that you can still win even when you aren’t the one hammering from the front and making it a really fast race?

That’s definitely something that I’ve learned over the years. That’s how I ran my lifetime best last year. Emery Ross took it out in 58 and it was a negative split on my part and really just trusting myself. I think it’s a nice tool to have in the back pocket that as long as I really trust myself I can still win these races and be in contention.

Your win at Track Night was so impressive, but then just over a week ago, 2:01.84 at a smaller meet that you won by 10 seconds. You’re able to win a tactical race at Arcadia, and you’re also able to run a U.S.-leading sub-2:02 in essentially a time trial. As a close to the regular season, what are you taking away from that race?

It was very much a low-key meet. I was actually planning on running the mile that day at a local New Jersey meet but thunder ended up getting it canceled, so it was kind of a quick pivot towards 800m that day. I ran it with some boys on my team and it was really just for fun and an opportunity to see what kind of 800m speed I had. I had just run a really great 400m workout that Friday prior, so to be able to see that work pay off immediately was great to know and also shows the training is working. Starting with a 2:05 this season and getting it down to a 2:01 so far is great to know that as the season goes on, that 2-minute barrier is something that is possible to break and hopefully will fall by the end of the season.

You had such a strong cross country season, almost finishing inside the top 10 of your last national championship meet of the fall. How have you seen adding more strength to your abilities benefit your track season indoors and out?

Cross has definitely been a love-hate thing for me. It was something I didn’t necessarily want to do but my mom kind of pushed me towards, and then coming onto the UC team and getting a chance to run at NXN fueled that fire a little bit more. There was more motivation.

Over the years, there’s definitely still been some struggles in finding a reason to love it, but one of the reasons is definitely the aerobic capabilities and base I get for the track season. Cross is so important in learning the mental battles and pushing through when it’s really tough and there’s so many bodies around you, so I really think it gives that kind of practice. And it is just so much longer of a race and you’re thinking for so much longer, so you get more of an opportunity to trust yourself and kind of see what works and what doesn’t work around you. I’m really happy to have done cross country and I’m excited going into that next year.

When looking at the biggest races of your summer at the moment, you’re pivoting away from New Balance Nationals. With a home World Junior Championships in August, you’ll be targeting the U.S. U20 Championships out in Eugene that same weekend. How excited are you to be able to race for a different kind of national title?

I’m super pumped. This is something that my coach and I have kind of talked about since the cross season, looking ahead and mapping out everything for this year. I’m really excited and I’ve been putting in a lot of work and I think the pieces have been falling well. Everything’s been shaping up super beautifully, so as long as everything keeps going smoothly, there’s a lot that can happen.

You’re the fastest high schooler in the country this year, but the fastest U20 American is fellow New Balance athlete Claire Stegall who runs for the University of Florida now. When you’re approaching a meet like this with some slightly more experienced athletes you’ll be racing, how does the preparation from a training and tactics perspective vary?

I haven’t thought about it too much yet, but I’ll probably call back to my mindset when I ran the USA Championships during the indoor season. It was a similar field in the sense of older, more experienced racers. The thing that I told myself is that I had nothing to lose, and I feel like that’s the mindset that I’m hoping to carry out to Eugene. Really trusting myself and knowing that I got in here and I deserve to be at the race and in this meet, and that’s gotta be enough belief in myself that I’m fast enough and I can do whatever it takes to make that team and win a national championship.

Were there any nerves for you stepping up to the line at USAs?

Honestly, no. I was probably more nervous for the New Balance Nationals Indoor 800m. I was really calm about it. I knew the pressure wasn’t on me, it was more on the rest of the field because they were going up against a high schooler. I was just out there to have fun. I think that mindset will definitely shift a little bit because I do really want to make the team this time, so I’ll be going in with a little bit more grit, but kind of the same carefree mindset of “There’s really nothing to lose,” and just go out there and do what I know I can do.

A few weeks ago there was some big news that a lot of people had been waiting for when you announced your commitment to Stanford. Obviously there’s such a great pedigree the last couple years with New Balance Nationals champions going there and winning 800m national titles, but what made Stanford stand out as the choice for you?

I don’t know exactly what I want to do in life, but I’ve known since freshman or sophomore year that Stanford was where I wanted to be. I’d never been to that part of California or anything, but it was just kind of calling to me. I got the opportunity this year before Arcadia to see Stanford, and it was funny because a lot of people from Jersey ended up going so it was kind of like our own little cult, if you will. But I got the opportunity to room with the girls and experience a team that was everything I thought it would be and more.

The environment of everyone and how they all supported one another, cheering each other on during reps at practice, it was an amazing feeling. Unlike us, they do have an oval-shaped track, so getting to experience that and the better weather compared to Jersey after such a harsh winter all led me towards that was where I wanted to be.

Did you talk with Roisin Willis or Juliette Whittaker at all about why Stanford might be the right place?

Roisin had actually left the week prior to join Team New Balance Boston, but I did get to see Juliette and she’s super sweet, super nice. I have met her before, but she’s super sweet. And not just her, but some of the freshmen, Clemmie Lilley and Olivia Cieslak, who’s a New Balance NIL athlete. I got the chance to meet them last year and I’m just so excited to get the opportunity to be on the same team as them. They’re just such great girls and getting that relationship with them last year made it easy to know that I’m not the only girl coming from the northeast and going to a school like Stanford on the west coast, and that sense of community made it a really easy decision for me.

Before we go, talk me through what your shoe rotation for a week of training looks like as a New Balance athlete.

I would say I’m honestly pretty boring. I usually end up stuck in a rut of the same shoe, right now I’ve been wearing the Ellipse a lot, and not even just the one shoe but all the different colorways. I think what’s so great about the New Balance shoe is that they’re really stylish and they go with a lot of different outfits. I actually just got a pair of shorts last week that match the Gabby Thomas Ellipses that are pink, so it’s really fun to put together outfits. So the Ellipse right now has definitely been a big strong runner, but the SC Elites are also great for long runs or workouts, and the 1080s are always great for an easy run.

Paige, thank you so much for taking the time to talk today and congratulations on the great season you’ve already had as well as your college decision. Best of luck on whatever this summer might bring for you!

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