Martin was meant to be a Viking

Since she was a teenager, PSU senior Bianca Martin has always loved competing in an oft-avoided sport: distance running. The Beaverton native’s track and field career began at the University of New Mexico, where she redshirted through her first year. Plagued by injuries and not fitting in well with the program, Martin left the Lobos after her second year and came home to Oregon, where she started running with a private club after enrolling at Portland State.

“Running is so pure,” Martin said. “All you need is shoes…[Distance running] is what a lot of people hate to do and that is something that almost makes it cooler—thinking [about how] everyone hates it, but I’m actually pretty good at it.”

Though she took a somewhat unconventional route to the Park Blocks, Martin has made her time on the team count, working hard to improve after spending long periods out of competition. That work paid off last fall when first-year assistant coach Jonathan Marcus witnessed Martin’s abilities at an indoor meet in Seattle.
Marcus introduced himself and asked Martin if she would consider becoming a Viking.

After completing the paperwork to determine her eligibility, Martin joined the team for her one and only season in the green and black. She has proven her talent over the past season with the PSU squad: After posting solid times throughout the regular season, she took second in the 1,500-meter at the Big Sky Conference Championship last month, advancing to regionals in that event, where she made it to the semifinal round.

“I think she is a natural fit into the program,” Marcus said. “She has high goals and ambitions for herself.”

Martin came up big for the Vikings at the Big Sky meet, following up her second-place finish in the 1,500-meter by taking seventh in the 800-meter.

“The two-three finish [of Martin] and Amber [Rozcicha] got us ahead early in that meet,” Marcus said. “They were somewhat unexpected points, and then her resilience and ability to come back in the 800 and score some points an hour later really demonstrated her growth as a runner.”

Martin was one of two Vikings to advance to the semifinal round of competition at regionals, all of her success coming just one year after knee surgery. Though her time as a PSU athlete has been brief, Martin has enjoyed the experience.

“It has been a great situation for all of us,” Martin said. “I finally got a team that I had been missing out on for the last couple years. It’s been great for me to come in and be a—I don’t want to say role model, but leader, because my lifestyle is 100 percent tailored to running…I think a couple of the distance girls really picked up on that.”

Distance sports are a family tradition for Martin, whose parents competed as distance cyclists—her mother was a two-time national champion and her father twice made it to the Olympics. Now that her college running career is at an end, Martin plans to give herself at least one year of complete devotion to running to see where it takes her. Her coach has no doubt about her ability to succeed.

“She is a…talented athlete with a bright future,” Marcus said.