The Road Is The Reward For Young Huskies
October 01, 2010 | Cross Country
Oct. 1, 2010
About two thousand miles separates Seattle and South Bend, Indiana, where the Husky cross country teams are ready to run in Friday's Notre Dame Invitational. For the five redshirt freshmen making their first trip with UW's top group this weekend, that's a nice representation of the miles they've put in on the ground over the past year to be able now to enjoy the comforts of flying coach.
As the Huskies loaded up the bus on Wednesday, Michael Miller picked up their personal luggage tags, counted their per diem money, and milled around trading compliments on their teammates' dress attire. All Huskies making road trips are required to dress in a business-like fashion (with maybe a little more flair) as the Huskies have work to do when they reach their destination.
A year ago at this time, the five redshirt freshmen would have been among the well-wishers stopping to see their teammates off for the weekend. But all five have shown significant progress early this fall, a result of focused and consistent work over the summer and back to the spring track season.
Johnson and Green both made trips with the track team in the spring, each running at the Pac-10 Track Championships, and Johnson going on to NCAA West Prelims in the 1,500-meters. But stepping up to make the smaller cross country travel roster for the first time is a big milestone for both.
It would maybe take at least until the plane took flight before it would fully sink in for Green. "I can't believe I'm here actually. I don't know what I'm doing but I'm really excited, and I'm just going to do my best," she said. "It's sweet, I feel like a professional athlete."
Johnson's 2009 season got off to a slow start, as she battled mono over the previous summer and was not in the shape she would have liked to be coming into the fall. But after a few months of training, the British Columbian began to shine on the track, eventually making the Pac-10 1,500-meter final with a personal-best of 4:24.
"Last year I was kind of disorganized. I didn't really have any goals coming into the season," Johnson says. "This year I think I was way more prepared, and way more mature about things, and I'm just operating at a higher level than I did last year."
For Carlson and Gilna, this week marks their first trips of any kind, as both redshirted the full track season, while Miller has a bit more traveling savvy, having run the 800-meters at Pac-10s last year as a freshman.
Gilna sported a full suit and tie, the only evidence that this was his first trip being his socks, which as Coach Metcalf pointed out did not quite match the rest of the ensemble, as they were ankle socks. Gilna replied that a replacement pair was being supplied by Miller.
In his first year, Gilna was plagued by injuries and could never get significant forward momentum, but now is operating at full strength with a productive summer in the books. So far this season, Gilna has been UW's fourth finisher at the UW-WSU dual, and the No. 5 finisher, 13th overall, at the Sundodger. Although Gilna grew up in Las Lomas, New Mexico, his parents moved to Knoxville, Tennessee after his high school graduation. So when Gilna went home this summer, there weren't many distractions.
"I went home to Knoxville and ran every single run on my own this summer. It's just me and my dog and my parents there," Gilna says. "I think that was a good thing for me to do, to clear my mind, calm down, and get in shape. Being able to get a summer of training in and the last two months training here has made a huge difference."
Carlson's experience was the exact opposite, as the San Antonio, Texas native was back in his home state running with a group of friends all summer.
"They helped me out and I was able to work off them and got me better prepared for this season," says Carlson, who made the biggest jump of any runner at this year's Sundodger, improving more than 30 places and running 90 seconds faster. Carlson thinks that closing the gap with some of UW's veteran runners in turn has raised the level of his training even further. "The biggest improvement is just the ability to train with the upper-classmen a lot better. The ability to just go out and have more consistency than the previous year."
The level of competition will jump up significantly this weekend at the Notre Dame Invitational. The women's race will be basically have a 2009 NCAA Championship redux, with No. 1 Villanova, No. 2 Florida State, and No. 5 Oregon joining the third-ranked Huskies, though at 5,000-meters it will be shorter and quicker than the national meet. The men's race also features eight ranked teams led by No. 3 Oregon and No. 5 Alabama. It will be a great chance for the new travelers to learn to navigate large, talented fields, and for the Huskies as a team to gauge where they're at early in the season.
"I think it will be a really great experience," says Johnson. "I'm just looking forward to trying to make this team for every meet we go to, and hopefully bringing home a medal at Nationals. We're trying to fill in those gaps from losing Katie Follett last year. I think we're all just trying to be very supportive, give good advice to the freshmen, and work as a team."
And while this weekend is a big step forward for all the group, there is still a great deal of improvement to make down the road. Of course there is no shortcut and no substitutes for hard work.
"This summer now I knew what I was doing, I did what I was supposed to do and I was mature about it and I worked hard," says Green. "I try to act like the older girls and do my best, and just be the best I can be every day, like Coach Metcalf says. I actually try to do that!"
