Guerin Catholic’s Katie Kolb excels in both tennis & track
By RICHIE HALL
From Bloomington to Niles and back home again, Guerin Catholic’s Katie Kolb got to see quite a bit of Indiana – and a little bit of Michigan – three weekends ago.
Kolb finished her sophomore year at Guerin Catholic by qualifying for IHSAA state meets in two sports. First, Kolb was part of the Golden Eagles’ 4×800 relay team that made it to the state track and field meet at Indiana University. A week later, Kolb joined her twin sister Anna Kolb to play in the individual doubles tennis tournament at North Central’s Barbara Wynne Tennis Center.
“It’s definitely challenging at times,” said Kolb. “But I just felt like I’m so lucky that the school supported me so much, that I was able to do both. I played tennis every day after school and then ran on my own.” Kolb also did one track workout a week with her coaches.
All the work began to pay off during the month of May, starting at the Carmel tennis sectional on May 18. While the Golden Eagles lost in the team semifinals to Zionsville that day, Katie and Anna Kolb won the No. 1 doubles match, sending them to the individual tournament.
But immediately after the match, the Kolbs had to rush to Fishers so Katie could run in the Hamilton Southeastern girls track and field sectional. This would normally not be an issue, but the track sectional was postponed one day because of weather.
“I actually felt it was beneficial in some cases that I got to play tennis beforehand,” said Katie Kolb. “It warmed up my muscles before my race. I never performed worse due to the tennis match.”
Kolb competed in three track events, taking fifth in the 800 run. She also was part of the fifth-place 4×800 relay and the sixth-place 4×400 relay. Kolb advanced to the regional in both the open 800 and the 4×800 relay, along with freshman Brinna Wolf and seniors Bailey Freese and Claire Milam.
“I’m proud of Katie and she is a hard worker, and she knows she owes a lot to Guerin and her coaches for letting her compete in both,” said Jason Kolb, Katie’s father. “I also think the fact they gambled and let her play both the sectional tennis and then race to Fishers to run in the open 800 before the meet ended says a lot about the school’s flexibility.”
The 4×800 relay placed fifth at the Lafayette Jefferson regional and earned a callback to the state meet. The Golden Eagles had just missed advancing to state the previous year, but got it done in 2024.
“Bailey ran in it last year and it was just devastating not making it by less than half of a second,” said Kolb.
The track meet took place on May 21, so Katie had plenty of time to get ready for the individual tennis sectional on May 22 and 23. She and Anna won their first-round match 6-0, 6-0, then beat Park Tudor in the championship to qualify for the regional.
Road trips
The weekend of Friday, May 31 and Saturday, June 1 wasn’t stressful for Katie Kolb, but it did involve miles of driving. First up was the May 31 state track and finals. The 4×800 relay began at 4:15 p.m.
“We didn’t have to get there until a little bit later,” said Kolb. “We had pretty much the day to relax and sleep in.”
The Golden Eagles relay placed 13th in the race, clocking in with a new personal record of 9 minutes, 33.26 seconds.
“It was an amazing feeling,” said Kolb. “We’ve been working so hard for it all season. Our seniors especially, it was special for us to be able to do it together. We worked really hard to do this.”
Kolb headed home early from Bloomington. She and her family got up at 6 a.m. the next morning to make the trip to Niles, Mich., which is where the La Porte (Indiana) regional was played. Weather forced the change in venue to an indoor facility in Niles.
Nothing stopped the Kolb sisters from winning the regional, though. The Kolbs won their semifinal 6-0, 6-0 and took the championship match 6-1, 6-0 to advance to state.
“I think we played the best we’ve probably played this season,” said Katie. “I think we really worked well together, we kept our composure. Even with the adversity of having to play inside, we really took advantage of it and used it play the best we could.”
Katie and Anna played their quarterfinal state match June 7 and won 6-4, 6-4. The Kolbs then took on the Jasper team of Paige Giesler and Reese Mundy in the June 8 semifinals, but lost 6-3, 6-1.
“Anna and I played the best we could have on that occasion,” said Katie Kolb. “We may have been a little tight due to nerves. I think for that day, that’s the best we could have played. And the other team is just unbelievably talented.”
Katie Kolb proved herself to be talented as well. And she’s already thinking about next year.
“It’s definitely going to be a lot of hard work next year if we want to accomplish the same thing, but knowing what it’s like going into it will definitely be helpful for both of us as a team,” said Kolb.