In the midst of his senior year cross country season, distance runner Isaac Alonzo is navigating life as a fall in-season student athlete. But he prepares to do so in the spring as well.
Each year in college athletics, many distance runners compete in both cross country and track and field, meaning their seasons can essentially last the full school year if they qualify for championship events. 10 Texas men’s distance runners currently participating in cross country, including Alonzo, had this school-year-long season last year. They, alongside some of the new additions to the program, will do so once again this year.
“(If) all things go well, you’re running till the end of May, early June,” Alonzo said. “(You) take a small break and then start the process over again every year. So you’re always on the clock, kind of trying to focus on that season, but you’re also building towards the next season.”
While cross country and track and field make up the two sports for distance runners, there are really three parts to the year: cross country, indoor track and outdoor track. Seasons are action-packed, which men’s cross country and distance assistant coach Greg Metcalf witnesses every year.
“You have a (cross country) national championship in November, you get a handful of weeks off and then the SEC Indoor Championships, the Big 12 Indoor Championships are at the end of February,” Metcalf said. “The Texas Relay is the last weekend of March. And then the outdoor season. … The kids on our team that ran in the Olympic trials last year ran until the very end of June.”
Handling the many responsibilities of a student athlete and the stress that comes with it is no easy task, especially when the season spans the whole academic year. Distance running is both a team and individual sport and, throughout the seasons, the group has to be tight-knit and there for one another.
“It’s just a lot of accountability with each other and a lot of trust that everyone’s going to get their job done,” Alonzo said. “And then whenever you do need that extra help, not being afraid to go get it from wherever it may be.
This school year, the distance runners expected to double in fall cross country and spring track besides Alonzo are graduate students EJ Rush and Rodger Rivera, senior Logan Patete, juniors Nathanael Berhane, Henry Coughlan, Hudson Heikkinen, Nigusom Knight and Emmanuel Sgouros, sophomores Jack Boyd and Zain Hamdani and freshmen Neeraj Kulkarni, Dylan Schieffelin, Hayden Scott and Adam Burlison.
“The biggest thing is just being able to rely on each other. We all know we’re doing the same things for practice, kind of have the same lives, class, practice, we always hang out with each other,” Alonzo said.
Right now, the men’s cross country team, ranked No. 29, is entering the primetime of its season, with its four biggest meets taking place in the next six weeks — the Wisconsin Pre-Nationals on Oct. 19, the SEC Championships on Nov. 1, the NCAA South Central Regionals on Nov. 15 and the NCAA Championships on Nov. 23. Metcalf has unquestioned faith in his athletes’ ability to contend in these races.
“Whether they’re freshmen, sophomores, seniors, juniors, whatever they are, hopefully they stand there, they’re full of belief, they’re full of run and they will go out and go do what they’re capable of doing,” Metcalf said.
Once December hits, some of Metcalf’s runners will start navigating their next season, shifting their focus to the all-important stopwatch for men’s track and field.
