TEN QUESTIONS WITH...

At last weekend’s New Balance Armory Invitational, you won the 800-meter race with a time of 2:09.41, which bettered your ECAC qualifying time from earlier in the season. Do view the entire season as a process of improving upon your previous accomplishments?
With a meet almost every weekend – and the most important ones coming toward the end of the season – we train through each meet. Being able to do well at the beginning of the season and keep improving is significant. It opens up additional opportunities leading up to the championship meets.

You have now qualified for the ECAC Championships – which will be held in Boston, MA between March 5th and 7th – in the 500, 800 and 1,000 meters. How important was qualifying for that meet to you?
Doing that early in the season was a meaningful accomplishment. I feel that it shows that during my time at UB, I have expanded my ability to compete in events beyond just the 800. With our training program we have here, we work on events both above and below our primary event to help prepare for the Mid-American Conference Championships at the end of the season. At the ECACs, I will just be running in the 800 – but our 4x400 relay team has also qualified, so I hope to run in that, too.

What are the challenges that you face with competing in separate events at a meet?
I have run in both the 500 and the 1,000 at the same meet – but not in the same day. We do a lot more work in our training throughout the week than we do in our races on the weekends. From a confidence perspective, it helps knowing that you are capable of handling that.

The MAC Indoor Championships will be held on March 27th and 28th at Eastern Michigan. How much emphasis does your team put on having a strong showing at that meet?
That’s when all of your hard work pays off. You have an opportunity to prove things not only to yourself, your teammates and your university – but also to the rest of the MAC schools.

Last season, you finished fourth in the 800 meters at the MAC Indoors. How can you draw from that experience heading into this year’s Championships?
That was an unbelievable experience – I was really happy with my finish. It has given me a lot of confidence, which I am always trying to build upon.

As a mid-distance runner, what type of mindset do you have in terms of pacing yourself during an event?
During practice, we run mileage that is over the length of our race. So you know that you can go out and race your event and not be tired. I think that middle-distance races require both speed and endurance in order for you to be successful.

How much of an influence do your competitors have on you when you are running a mid-distance event?
Your competition is not supposed to influence you during a race – you are just supposed to worry about yourself. That is one of my biggest challenges, focusing only on myself. That is where pace comes in – if you focus on that instead, you can more easily forget your competitors.

How do you determine which events you are going to run in during a meet?
My main event is the 800, but I have only raced in it three times this season. During meets that are not as important, I may focus on speed and run the 400, as well as endurance and run the 1,000 during indoor season and the 1,500 during outdoor season.

However, some of my teammates will run in the same event at every meet. It is just a matter of what your style and approach is.

Are there different mindsets in terms of which leg of the relay you run? Which one would you prefer to run?
I do not notice a difference. There are obviously strategies as far as setting up who runs which leg, though – depending on whether or not you run better in the lead or coming from behind. I have been the anchor so far this season in the 4x400 relay, but it really does not make a difference to me.

Now that you are a senior, do you feel everything has come together for you?
Yes, I have been very happy with my senior year so far – but I hope it continues throughout the outdoor season, too. I definitely want to end my last college race on a good note, so hopefully the indoor season is just a forecast of what will happen during the outdoor season.

-The "10 Questions with…" feature is compiled by Geoff Nason.