Whittaker's 'Effortless' Running Honed And Guided By Her Father

By Mary Albl of DyeStat

Photos courtesy Paul Whittaker/Phil Yearian (Brooks PR throne)

The boys at West Chester Henderson High in Pennsylvania aren't cutting Juliette Whittaker any slack.

Two weeks prior, she became the second high school female to run under 2 minutes in the 800 meters.

Now, she is jostling for position with 20 boys in the mile field at the John Hay Pennsylvania Distance Festival on a Friday evening. In a competitive and high-traffic race June 3, she manages to cross the finish line in 4 minutes and 36.8 seconds, a new personal best.

Whittaker slowly crashes to the infield after finishing so she can catch her breath.

Her work isn't over. Two younger girls who were also participating have had their eyes on Whittaker. They approach her high school coach, Steve Weber, and politely ask for a chance to meet Juliette. 

“I brought Juliette over and she got in between the two of them and I took the little girl's iPhone and took their picture,” Weber said. “It was a small thing, but the 11-year old said to Juliette, ‘I follow you.’ Juliette has this huge following on social media and it’s this groundswell that's kind of hidden away. It's not a brand, it's not promotion, but what she has done so far really resonates with an awful lot of young girls. They were just inspired.”

The recent Mount de Sales Academy (Cantonsville, Md.) graduate has a unique and calculated approach to the sport of running that has transformed her into one of the best and brightest prep runners in the country.

On Wednesday, she’ll be in Seattle for the prestigious Brooks PR Invitational, where she’ll look to defend her mile crown. After that, she plans to run at the USATF U-20 Championships in Eugene, Ore. and is entered in the 800.

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“She has a very ready smile and it’s a big smile,” Weber said of Whittaker. “She comes in and all eyes are on her. She has a very winning personality.” 

From the water to the track

Paul Whittaker was sure it was going to be swimming for his daughter. For seven years it was. Whittaker, who is from Laurel, Md., grew up tagging along with her older siblings to their activities. The youngest of four – two brothers and one sister – Juliette played soccer when she was little but shifted to swimming with her sister, Bella, after a family friend convinced them to join one summer. 

“We tried it out and it was funny (at first). They were miserable because it was so hard, but by the end of the summer, they were like, ‘We want to swim year round.’ So that's basically the next seven years,” Paul Whittaker said. 

Paul explained both his daughters took to the water naturally, swimming collegiate times at ages 10 and 12, with their competitive nature taking over. 

“She was very good,” Paul said of Juliette. “So we thought swimming was going to be her main sport.” 

A casual competitor in cross country meets occasionally during middle school, it wasn’t until she entered high school at Mount de Sales Academy that running took over. With her sister already on the team, Juliette decided to join.

In the Whittaker family, talent for running comes naturally. Paul, and Juliette's mom, Jill, both competed in track collegiately at Georgetown. Her older brother, Alex, was on the track and field team at Yale. Juliette always knew running was in her future, from a young age. 

“Like swimming, running is an individual sport but also a team sport,” Whittaker said. “Setting goals and dreams and working as hard as I could to achieve them, that drew me in.” 

Weber remembers Whittaker’s very first high school race.

As a freshman at the Seahawk Invitational in Maryland, she finished fourth, running 18:56.4 for three miles. She ended that cross country season leading her team to a Maryland Private School Championship with a first-place finish. 

“All of her debuts were remarkable,” Weber said. “People were just in awe of her from the beginning, really. It's just been extraordinary from the beginning.”

Whittaker didn’t understand all of the different events in track, so she tried everything from the 400 up to the 3,200 in her first indoor season, searching for what suited her. Some of her best times came right in the middle. She placed second at the New Balance Indoor Nationals Freshman Mile (4:59.40). The outdoor season saw more progression, in particular the 800 meters, as she clocked 2:05.25 at Nationals in the championship race to place second with a five-second personal best.

Paul said right then was when he knew, Wow! she was going to be good. 

A special bond

“She’s a bigger, better version of me,” Paul says with conviction. 

Paul has a special and unique connection with his youngest daughter. Two months ago at the Penn Relays, he watched Juliette win the girls mile in the the third-fastest time in meet history (4:41.18). She came back to place second in the women’s 800 (2:01.55). Paul ran on a Distance Medley Relay Championship team in 1990.

Juliette grew up aware of the Penn Relays watch on her father's wrist. Now she has one, too.

“It was a bigger deal for her, compared to what I did,” Paul said. “I did it as part of a relay, what she did, was on her own. If we were to compare the two, she's bigger than me. Always will be.”

While Paul is quick to shine a light on his daughter’s success, he’s been an integral part of her journey and development. As Whittaker’s running career began to morph into something special, with more elite racing opportunities outside of her traditional school schedule, Paul started to oversee his daughter’s workouts and training.

Without a home track, Whittaker would train at the “brother” school, Mount St. Joseph, where her two brothers attended school and her dad coached. Having her dad as her coach has added a different layer of vulnerability for Whittaker. 

“I love it because I have so much trust in his workouts and training and I feel like we have a good dynamic,” said Whittaker, who will run for Stanford this fall. “I think remembering he is my dad, I am able to ask more questions and share more. My dad will know if I'm having a bad day.”

Paul recalls a memory back from early 2021 when Juliette was preparing to run the 800 at the Virginia Showcase. He knew by now race strategy was off limits for conversation with his daughter. But he asked for it anyway. 

“I was literally walking out of the hotel room I said to her, ‘OK, you gotta give me two minutes so we can talk about this race,” Paul said. 

Juliette went out and ran a blistering 2:02.07 to win and qualify for the U.S. Olympic Trials.

There’s been other moments like that.

In February at the Ocean Breeze Invitational in Staten Island, she set an indoor national record in the 1,000, running 2:39.41. There were also the Hayward Field moments last summer when she was one of three high school athletes in the women's 800. She advanced to the semifinals running 2:01.21.

Paul was there to witness her first national title at The Armory, the New Balance Nationals Indoor Mile (4:37.23). And most recently on May 20, she won the Trials of Miles NYC women's 800 in 1:59.80 at Icahn Stadium, second-fastest in high school history behind Mary Cain (1:59.51).

“It’s been awesome,” Paul said. “I’m so glad that I did (coach) for a number of reasons. But I really am happy that I was able to be a part of it because it's been time for me to actually be with her in the sport that she loves. God, I’m going to miss this; I’m waiting for Stanford to offer me a job.”

‘No one style’ 

A philosophy professor at Loyola University in Maryland for 37 years, Weber appreciates a good analytical thinker. He sees that trait in Whittaker. 

“She simply pursues something until she has a really good command and understanding of it,” Weber said. “I’ve never seen her struggle, but I’ve always seen her work. Julliette has that intellect where she dissects things thoroughly.”

Whittaker said her favorite class in high school was Honors Algebra II. She also loved chemistry. Weber said he doesn’t think she’s received anything less than an ‘A.’ While Paul doesn’t view his daughter as someone who studies opponents before each race or maps out a detailed game plan, he’s watched her learn to manage the mental side of the sport as she’s matured and become a strong and adaptable racer.

“She just kind of goes with whatever presents itself, which is what makes her such a good racer,” Paul said. “She races from the front, she races from behind, and it’s not like she's great or better in one or the other, it's just dependent on the situation and that's where racing instincts really help her the most.”

Added Weber: “She has great tactical sense. It’s never the same race. She can adjust tactics to a lot of different situations.” 

‘Effortless beauty’

Roisin Willis can't help but smile when she talks about her high school peer and future Stanford teammate.

“Racing against her is very different than interacting with her,” Willis said. 

The senior from Stevens Point WI has come to know Whittaker very well over the course of four years racing on big stages and climbing all-time national lists together. During the 2021 indoor season, the two teamed up to run a U-20 World Record in the 4x800 relay in 8:37.20. Later that year, they ran in the U.S. Trials, both advancing to the semifinals. A few weeks later, they were reunited again at the Brooks PR Invitational, Whittaker winning the mile and Willis the 400.

While they chose Stanford for individual reasons, the prospect of spending the next four years as teammates was a factor in their decisions. 

“She’s just very motivated, but also just a kind and humble person. Getting to know her has been really great,” Willis said. “Having her as a competitor has been awesome as well; She’s really, really, aggressive to race against.”

The words kind, humble, and easy going all describe Whittaker. To watch her race, those words come up again.

“When you watch her run it’s deceptive,” Weber said. “It never looks like she’s going very hard, It's always relaxed. To run beside her it's got to be discouraging because everyone’s working so hard and she’s just gliding past them, it's almost like a sensation of floating. It’s effortless beauty.”

Pursuit of something special

In her four years at Mount de Sales Academy – an all-girls’ school – Whittaker served on the student council for three of them. Her dad calls her a great leader. She loves to make positive changes, for herself and others.

On Wednesday, she’ll toe the line in one of the most competitive mile fields in recent memory at Brooks PR.

A year ago, she set the meet record, running 4:38.65. She’ll be up against California's freshman phenom Sadie Englehart, US#2 4:35.16, and fellow Stanford commits, Riley Stewart, Julia Flynn and Caroline Wells. Engelhardt also ran the top prep 1,500 time in the country this season Saturday at the Portland Track Festival by clocking 4:11.79 to improve to No. 6 all-time.

“The field is incredibly stacked and I think that is exciting me a lot,” Whittaker said. “I would love the win, but also if I get a faster time, I’ll pretty much be happy with anything, but I’m hoping for low 4:30. After that 800, I feel like I’m in a better place.”