Cotten sprints past competition

Most athletes will tell you they play sports because their parents did or they just simply love the game, but University of Cincinnati track athlete Jasmine Cotten used running as a way to get herself out of the house and to spend time with her best friend Chelsea.

The West Virginia native began running track  for fun when she was 9 years old and found out she was pretty good at it.

“[Chelsea] asked me to come to an open track meet, which anybody could run in,” Cotten said. “So, I figured I would go for fun and it was fun for me and it wasn’t that big of a deal, but the coaches told me that I was pretty fast so I decided to stick with it.”

Cotten’s friend Chelsea ran track in the Amateur Athletic Union for the Capital City Striders in Charleston, W.Va. After running with the team for a year, Cotten placed fourth in the 400-meter sprint at AAU nationals, earning herself a lot of recognition and respect.

“I was tearing girls up and the coaches kept wondering who I was,” Cotten said. “The girls I was running against had been training for at least three years longer than I had.”

Cotten then moved to Fayetteville, W.Va., where she won six state championships in high school – three as a sophomore, one as a junior and two as a senior.

“The [AAU] coaches told me they couldn’t believe I was moving,” Cotten said. “The coaches ended up getting mad at my parents for taking me out of the area.”

Most colleges were not recruiting Cotten very much, which led her to begin training with former track coach Bob Red.

“[Red] helped me out a lot,” Cotten said. “I ended up dropping three seconds off my 400 time, which helped me get recruited by bigger schools.”

After improving her times and going through several different colleges, Cotten decided to attend UC because she said the team felt more like a family than anything else.

Cotten continued to have success at UC, but against an elevated level of competition in the NCAA, Cotten would have to work much harder to reach her goals.

“When I got here I was thinking I wasn’t going to be the greatest out here, but it should be ok,” Cotten said. “It was a rude awakening.”

Injuries held Cotten back in her freshman and sophomore years at UC. She needed surgery to repair a torn hamstring in 2008, which Cotten said still bothers her.

Cotten was the only Bearcat to be named to the 2009 NCAA indoor track and field championships and was also named the most outstanding field performer in the Big East Championship.

“[Cotten] is very talented and is possibly our most talented athlete on the team,” said UC track and field head coach Susan Seaton. “I think she has the potential to be an All-American in multi-events, both indoor and outdoor.”

In April, Cotten was recognized by the Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky Sports Association and was named one of six college sportswomen of the year along with UC volleyball player Jessie Nevitt.

“That award meant a lot to me,” Cotton said. “It showed me that I have matured a lot of the past couple of years.”

Cotten plans to continue her athletics when she graduates from UC by training for the 2012 Olympic games in the heptathlon events.

“[Making the Olympics] would mean a lot to me because it is every little boy and girl’s dream who runs track to one day be in the Olympics,” Cotten said.