Katherine Keating pulled off a rare track and field triple at the North 1, Group 4 sectional championships.
When the Ridgewood junior subsequently was selected as the North Jersey Female Athlete of the Week, presented by HSS, she completed an unprecedented triple.
In the 72-year history of The Record Athlete of the Week feature, Keating is the first to win the award three times in one school year.
Athletes are only eligible to earn the honor once per sports season. Numerous people have achieved the feat twice in a school year, and Keating is the 57th all-time with three-plus career AOW awards.
But even career five-time winners Carlene Cummings (Dwight Morrow Class of 1998), Catherine Feeney (Wayne Valley ’90) and Tawana Watkins (Kennedy ’02) did not end up with a “three-fer” in a single school year.
In 2025-26, Keating has been recognized for cross-country (Oct. 30), indoor track (March 19) and now outdoor track, making her a true “triple” trendsetter.
Her distance display at the May 15-16 sectional meet in Livingston demonstrated serious endurance. She won the individual 800- and 3,200-meter races on Friday night, then came back Saturday to earn gold in the 1,600 – after anchoring the Maroons’ 4-x-800 relay to victory.
“It’s pretty hard, but I made sure I was eating some snacks between each race,” Keating said, “and I got a good night of sleep after the meet on Friday, so that helped a lot.”
That sounds simple. Ridgewood coach Steve Opremcak has mentored distance runners for roughly a quarter-century and noted, “very few athletes in history have accomplished that,” when it comes to the 800/1,600/3,200 trifecta.
The 4-x-800 is a relatively newer event at sectionals, but Keating & Co. nonetheless lowered the meet record to 9:34.46.
“It was cool to run as a team and get the team win on that… I liked all the races, so it was a pretty good weekend,” Keating said.
She did point out that room for improvement remains: “We wanted to win as the team, but we got third overall,” behind West Orange and Passaic Tech. “Hopefully next year, we can win the whole meet.”
Keating has come a long way in the previous year. She battled through iron deficiency but found a way to keep going (seems Popeye was onto something with his spinach consumption).
Actually, she is continuing a Maroon line of “triple threats”. Her mother Stephanie (nee Doyle) was a distance runner at Ridgewood before graduating in 1996, and thrice she was named to The Ridgewood News All-Suburban cross-country first team.
“Since my mom did track and cross-country in high school, I kind of always thought I could make that my main sport,” Katherine said. When she first tried it, “I loved the team atmosphere of track and cross-country – it was so much fun. I just wanted to keep on doing it and getting better.”
She has competed in running and swimming, sticking with the latter in fourth through ninth grades. Having lived in both Wyckoff and Ridgewood growing up, the towns’ respective YMCA programs (Sharks and Breakers) provided ample pool time.
Younger sister Caroline is a freshman on the Maroon girls track squad, so the 2026-27 school year holds plenty of potential for future Keating race days.
Yet if you consider only Katherine’s first three seasons with one of the most storied programs in North Jersey history, it’s a triple that already seems like a home run.
“It’s great” running for Ridgewood, she said. “Definitely nice to know that it’s possible to do well here, and it’s super fun to be part of a great team.”
Katherine Keating
Sport: Track and field
School:, Ridgewood
Class: Junior Age: 17
Accomplishment: At the North 1, Group 4 sectional meet, Keating won three individual races: The 800 (2:15.09), 1,600 (4:56.80) and 3,200 (10:56.6) meters, taking the 800 by .16 seconds. She also anchored the winning 4-x-800 relay squad, which clocked 9:34.46.
Also nominated: Gianna Lembo of Lyndhurst, Grace Saxton of Ramapo, Grace Wien of Saddle Brook, Abby Buser of Waldwick and Bailey Jacobson of Ridgewood for softball; Griselis Perez of Passaic, Shannon Martorano of Paramus and Dani Daproza of Leonia for flag football; and Kristy Salerno of Mahwah for lacrosse.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Bergen Record Female Athlete of the Week: Katherine Keating, Ridgewood