After a terrific senior season and a thrilling career, Cassidy Kajita is off to compete for UC Davis next season. Before she leaves, she caught up with the Lancer to discuss her love for running, the process of getting recruited, how she approached running throughout her career and her inspirations for the sport and during her Lancer career.

The Lancer: What inspired you to start running?
Cassidy Kajita: “Basically, I wasn’t really good at any other sports, that was the main thing. Because as a kid, my mom would put us into little kid’s soccer and stuff but we never really liked to it. I knew from when I was kid that I liked to run, so when I got to high school I was like well they have a cross country team so I might as well join.”

The Lancer: Did you ever envision yourself having a future in cross country?
Kajita: “Not really, at least not initially. Junior year, and this year, too, I realized, ‘Oh, wait, I might be able to do something with this. But up until then it was mostly just, ‘Eh, this is fun.’”

The Lancer: How do you envision your future with running?
Kajita: “I’m not really too sure yet, it’s definitely a much different sort of running scene once you get to college and beyond because you’re not doing, for track at least, you’re not doing the (3,200) anymore, you’re doing the 3K, and you’re not doing the 1,600 anymore, you’re doing the 15. So it all kind of shifts a little, and of course there’s also like the 5K and the 10K on the track. So it’s a bit of a different scene, I’ll probably have to sort of feel it out for the first few years at Davis.”

The Lancer: Was there anyone that inspired you in your career?
Kajita: “Probably our old senior, Matilda Fitzgereld. She was really a big influence and just really a cool person on the team. She definitely sort of helped me when I was in a few rough spots for the first few years. And just overall she’s just a really good, cool runner and inspirational.”

The Lancer: How was it managing school with cross country and having that pressure?
Kajita: “It was definitely a bit challenging at times trying to figure out how you want to divy up your time and stuff. Because there’s a lot of commitments that you have to make to the teams. It’s running, so you have to really repeatedly hit that every single day. It’s not like other sports where it’s like, ‘OK, yeah, you need a break.’ We’re running like six days a week, so it’s challenging, but I wouldn’t say it’s a burden. It’s kind of a fun little break from school and academics and all of that, you just get a two-hour block where it’s like, ‘Yay I get to run and have fun and do random stuff with my friends. So it’s challenging but fun.”

The Lancer: What were the moments that made you realize that running is something you love?
Kajita: “The first year was a little tough, it was a little weird too because it was Covid, but I’d say maybe sophomore year, even though I was injured for most of that year. I guess last year, then, I sort of was able to see all of my hard work finally come to fruition with good times and pretty strong races and all of that. But that sort of was like a signal like, ‘Hey you’re like really good at this, you could actually do something with this. So I’d say junior year.”

The Lancer: What’s your favorite memory from TO?
Kajita: “Probably when we did the Clovis invitational this year or probably state this year as well. Just because with both of those, we got to go somewhere and stay the night and then run later. Probably those, too, just because it was a lot of fun just driving out there and then on top of that getting to race, being able to see the course, because it’s actually a really nice course.”

The Lancer: What made you choose UC Davis?
Kajita: “It was mostly between UC Davis and UC Irvine, but since I’m an environmental major, I decided Davis has a much stronger environmental program, and I just really like the campus. I visited both, and Irvine has arguably much better weather than Davis, but something about Davis just kind of clicked when I went there, so I figured, ‘Hey, I really like this place and I want to see myself here.’”

The Lancer: What was the process of getting recruited/scholarship?
Kajita: “With Irvine, they actually reached out to me, but with all the other colleges I tried, like UC San Diego and UC Davis, UC San Diego I didn’t really contact them too much, but with UC Davis, then I actually emailed them along with like a bunch of other colleges, being like ‘Hey, I’m Cassidy, this is my time, please let me on your team please.’”

The Lancer: Were there moments where you didn’t feel like continuing or felt like giving up?
Kajita: “There were definitely a few races where it’s just like, ‘Why am I here? Why am I doing this sport?’ I think it was my sophomore year, I was getting back from an injury and it was just like such a huge gap in skill that you need to make up, so much ground you need to make up, that the first few races were definitely having me question why am I doing this, why did I choose this sport. But once you get past that, honestly it gets, not necessarily easier, but definitely a lot more fun.”