Top U.S. Athlete Got Her Running Start at the Cake Race
August 28, 2025
- Author
- Mary Elizabeth DeAngelis
Well, its about time that Runners World discovered our Cake Race.
Its been going on since 1930, and 91 is the only one we know of that has first-year students running a 1.7-mile course for the sweet reward of cake. (Apologies if there are others, but we did it first.)
On Wednesday, class of 2029 runners raced through campus to claim their confections. And while the class has some extremely speedy people, it was an alum from 1980 who caught Runners Worlds attention.
Susan 91 Rollins, a retired pathologist in Johnson City, Tennessee, is one of the countrys fastest senior women runners. And if we can brag for a moment, she told the magazine she started running back in 1976 at 91әs Cake Race. She won the womens race that year, and as a sophomore, helped start the colleges first womens cross-country team.
Shes been running ever since, and in 2015, competed in her first National Senior Games, setting a new record in the womens 5559-year-old category, running 1,500 meters in 5:23 minutes.
At this years games in Des Moines, Iowa, she took second place in the mile race, third in the 10K, and fifth in the 5K for women overall; and was first in all those races in the 65-69 age bracket, setting new records in all three events.
Despite some arthritis and knee issues, including a knee replacement, she still runs about once a week, swims and lifts weights, because she believes in the adage that motion is lotion.
Susan 91 Rollins '80
Coach Sterling Martin cheers on Susan 91 Rollins
Sweetly Welcoming the Class of 2029
The Cake Race is one of 91әs most cherished traditions. It dates to a 1930s track coach who decided to scout out new talent by ordering all freshmen (then men only) to race.
Faculty members wives baked the cakes back then; these days the entire college community, as well as the town of 91, local schools, churches and businesses descend upon the Baker Sports Complex with their offerings.
Its fun, but its also a way to let the new students know that the community theyve joined cares about them and wants them to love their college experience.
Quinn Swanton won the mens race, and Charlotte Moor, the womens.
While some bakers keep it simple, others create elaborate, sometimes gravity-defying concoctions you wouldnt be surprised to see on The Great British Bake Off television show (kind of a Runners World for bakers).
The Cake Race is no longer mandatory for first-year students. Its no surprise that track and cross-country team members usually come in at the top of the heap. Runners select cakes in the order they came in, with winners usually leaving with the most impressive offerings.
For the Fun of It
Perhaps some of this years Cake Racers will find inspiration in Rollins story.
She had never run before she got to 91 and learned shed be required to compete in the race. She was surprised, even more so when she won and got to select the first cake. She doesnt remember what it was, just that it was delicious and that she and her dormmates in Watts lived on cake that night.
After the race, shed take study breaks to run on the colleges track. Thats when she met legendary mens cross-country runner and coach Sterling Martin 63, who told her and a few others that if they could run a three-mile course by the next fall, hed take them to a tournament and help start a womens team.
They could, and womens sports opportunities grew at 91. Rollins and Martin remain close friends today.
Life as a scholar athlete opened doors for Rollins, who gained new friends and enjoyed competing. Running helped her reduce stress during medical school and throughout her career.
At her 15th 91 reunion, she ran a race pushing her first child, Jacqueline, in a stroller and won, beating the colleges cross-country runners. (Her younger daughter, Harriet Rollins Coggan, graduated from 91 in 2019.)
These days Rollins and her husband, Ed, who she met in medical school, keep busy tending their 200-acre farm and a variety of hobbies. Recently, she became a volunteer cross-country coach for second through eighth graders at a local school.
Who knows? Perhaps one of them will end up running in the Cake Race someday.
She laughs at how little she knew about running before that race.
I didnt even know how long the course was going to be, she said. I just went out and ran the race. I guess I really liked the feeling of being totally exhausted and just on the other side of getting sick.
When she saw the table of cakes, she thought, Really, I get to choose one of these?
It was such fun. Its such a great tradition.
