TEN QUESTIONS WITH...

You went to high school at Bishop Timon-St. Jude in Buffalo. What made you decide to attend UB?

I was heavily recruited but, I’m from Buffalo and my (high school) coach recommended to me, he said, ‘Coach Jenkins is a good guy’ so he wanted me to come to Buffalo and I didn’t really know much about college or NCAA sports so I just took his word and came to Buffalo.

In 2006, you won the MAC Championship in the triple jump, both indoors and outdoors, while your teammate Roy Richards won the MAC championships in the long jump in the winter. How nice is it to get to train with another MAC Champion when you practice everyday?

It’s good. We’re on that same level, other people in our group, they don’t lift as hard as we do, not to degrade them or anything. We’re bigger and stronger, we squat more, we just do everything higher, I guess, so it’s cool to have somebody to workout with and to have that same intensity and to have high goals.

How does the training for a jumper differ from the training of a sprinter or a distance runner?

I really don’t know the training for sprinters and distance too much. We (jumpers) don’t run as far or nearly as much, my runway is about 130-something feet maybe, which is roughly around 40-meters. Distance guys run 100’s of miles per week and sprinters run a lot more than me so jumping, we focus more on weight training.

What is the difference between jumping inside during the indoor season and jumping outside during the outdoor season?

Indoor is usually one temperature, one atmosphere whereas outdoors you can be jumping in rain or sometimes even snow and the wind has a big effect. Mainly the elements, you have to be prepared mentally because they’re all physically different.

Your jumping coach, Tim Beach, is in his 10th season as an assistant track and field coach while head men’s track and field coach Perry Jenkins has been coaching at the collegiate level for over 30 years. How much have your coaches helped you throughout your career at UB?

They have helped me a lot. Sometimes it’s hard to be motivated and they motivate me a lot. They both really believe in me and they both really have a lot of faith in me and you know, like with Coach Beach, I’ll go in his office everyday and we’ll watch film for however long I want to or need to. They help me a lot, they also help me outside the classroom, whenever I need help, I can go to those guys. They’re cool people.

A characteristic of a track and field meet is the down time. What do you do while you are waiting for your event to start?

For the most part, I cheer. I cheer on my fellow teammates, for the most part. If there’s a lot of downtime, I’ll bring homework and read, I’m an English major, so there’s a lot of reading, so I do a lot of reading. Either cheer or read.

On Jan. 13 at the Doug Raymond Invitational, you established an IC4A qualifying distance when you won the triple jump with a leap of 47-1.50 (14.36m). What is your mindset as you compete throughout the rest of the indoor season, having already qualified for the IC4A’s at your first meet of the season?

When I qualified, it was from a short approach. Like I said, my runway is about 130 feet, that day I took off from about 50 feet, which is half of my approach and I qualified, which means when I go back to a full approach, it will be way further. Just knowing that I qualified off a short approach is a good thing. But now I’m looking to qualify for nationals and be an All-American this year.

What do you think is the most important element in executing a solid triple jump and is that different than executing a good long jump?

It’s hard to explain. For a solid triple jump, it’s three phases in the triple jump and they all need to be fairly even which means you have to be under control at the board whereas in the long jump, you need to bring a lot more speed and be a lot more aggressive. The triple jump is a lot more relaxed and patient whereas the long jump is more power and speed and aggressiveness.

In high school, you were an all-state triple jumper but you also twice earned All-Catholic honors on the gridiron. Who do you think will win Super Bowl XLI?

I would say the Bears. I want the Bears to win just because they’re underdogs and I’m used to that, I have been an underdog my whole life and I like the underdog story.

What has been your favorite moment as a UB student-athlete?

My favorite moment will be being an All-American but so far, I would say just coming out of my college career as an athlete with a lot of good friends and a lot of good contacts, coaches, friends and all that stuff so in general, I would just say, practicing and friends and the atmosphere and all that good stuff.

The “10 Questions with…” feature is compiled by Jackie O’Brien