TEN QUESTIONS WITH...

Over the summer I trained at Chestnut Ridge a lot and that definitely helps with running on trails and running up and down hills, that gets you used to whatever might show up on a cross country course. But the first thing we do when we show up to a course is walk it to see where the terrain changes, places where you can pick up the pace, places you might need to conserve energy. So walking the course is what we do to get acclimated to it.

2. When you are in a race, do you focus on competing against the other runners or are you competing against the course and the clock?

I think it’s more of a combination of the two. When we go to really big meets, its kind of hard to focus on competing against a single runner because you really don’t know a lot of the competition. But when we go to meets where we know other MAC schools, then we can focus on the MAC competition and compete against the other MAC schools.

3. There is an element of both individual and team sports in cross country. How do you balance the two ideas?

When we run against MAC schools, it’s definitely our main objective to compete with them and try to beat people within our conference, so we will try to run more as a pack, as a team. But at bigger races, again, sometimes you will come up with a different strategy for each runner. A lot of us run by pace, to judge where we are at for ourselves.

4. You won the men’s race last weekend at the UB Stampede, what does winning that race do for you as far as confidence?

It was really nice to win one. That was my first collegiate cross country win. It was really nice for me because I’m from a local high school (Lancaster), so I had a lot of friends and family there and the athletes-for-athletes turnout was really nice, so it was a really nice meet to win.

5. What are your goals for the rest of the season?

I just want to run some fast times leading into the MAC Championships. I’m not expecting to run anything to great until we get to MACs, our main focus is to be ready for the end of the season, but really just to stay healthy, be able to compete and get close to a top five finish at MACs.

6. From cross country through outdoor track, your season is very long. How do you deal with the grind that is involved in such a long season?

We really don’t get much time off, but we always take at least a week off in between each season. For cross country this year it has been nice because we have set up our schedule so that we are racing hard about every other week. With 8K distances that’s really nice because it takes a little longer to recover and there is a little bit more training involved with that. For track, the mileage isn’t quite as high so that is a bit easier. Then the summer is our resting period to take care of any aches or pains.

7. Do you prefer one discipline or the other, track or cross country?

I like cross country a lot for the team atmosphere of it, because it is only one race a day, everyone is focused on the same thing. But track is really nice for the consistency of the races, it’s always the same terrain, and the team chemistry is great there too.

8. If you could participate in any other sport at UB, what would it be?

I would probably like to play soccer. I used to play soccer, but I ended up quitting that to run cross country because I had experienced success running track and field. I always liked soccer, that was a fun sport too.

9. What do you like to do in your free time?

I like to watch a lot of television and relax; we don’t get too much downtime so it’s just nice to quick back after a hard workout. I like to watch football or movies or something.

10. What has been your favorite moment at UB?

My favorite moment at UB would be the 2005 cross country season. That was a great year, everyone did really well. At every single race it seemed like everyone was improving on their times. Dan McKenna, our lead runner, was doing things that none of us on the team had seen before. I think just the overall feel of that season was great but this season seems to be shaping up to be just as good or better, I’m really excited for the rest of the season.