In the Spotlight –
Morgan Sulzener
Despite
never running in a state meet in high school, Morgan Sulzener qualified for
the 2004 NCAA Cross Country Championships by placing 12th at the
Great Lakes Regional Championships. Morgan
is a junior from
You’ve just qualified
for the NCAA Cross Country Championships, but let’s turn back the clock, what
were your goals coming into the season?
I wanted to qualify for nationals, but I wasn’t really thinking about it individually, I wanted the team to qualify. That was the first goal. I wanted to run better than last year, to keep improving.
Last year you drove
to
It definitely motivated us to want to be there. The day before the meet we, Rachel [Rachel
Zubricky], Becki [Becki Michael], and I did our easy run on the course and we
commentated the race with the
What are your goals
and expectations for nationals?
I know it’s going to be a tough race because I’ll be running with all kinds of good people, not just a few. I want to go out and do what I did at regionals, I want to run the race that I can run.
Did the season
progress as you expected?
Coming into the season I felt I had good training in the summer, but I didn’t run as much as the summer before mileage-wise, so I didn’t know where I was going to be coming into the season. I knew I was in decent shape, but I didn’t know exactly where I was. I knew how I felt at the end of last season and where I came in and I didn’t want that to happen again. I had a lot of faith in God that if I did the right things it would come out right.
What were some of the
highlights and lowlights of the season for you?
Hmm, well lowlights, one of them is probably All Ohio, I’ve never run a really good race there. Tommy Evans was the first race and I was feeling kind of tired, but coming back at Central Collegiates and placing second in that race, not far behind Jenny Koeppel. Our team ran really well there and then being able to keep that going for the rest of the season. The regional meet was definitely a highlight!
How did you feel
about your races at Notre Dame and
At Notre Dame I got out fast, it was just a couple of seconds faster than what I went out at regionals, but I wasn’t able to keep it up for the race, so it was definitely a learning experience too. It’s nice to know that I can now sustain that through 6km, not just 5km. It was important to know that I can compete with those runners – that I have the ability to to do it. At Penn State the start of the race was kind of wacky [Morgan was hit in the face with a tree branch in the first 400m of the race], but I didn’t freak out and try to make up for it in the next 800m, as I’ve been known to do before. I felt pretty good about those races.
Tell us about your
race at the
My plan going in was to…, I’m not very “fast”, but I wanted
to get up into the top 15 for the first half of the race. I knew that I hadn’t peaked yet, I didn’t
feel I’d run the race that was close to my ability. My goal was to go out there and give it
everything that I had. After the first
mile I told myself I couldn’t slow down because I went out almost as fast as I
had at Notre Dame. I tried to compete
with the people around me and not give up.
There was a Butler girl [Ava Hutchison] right
in front of me and the Wisconsin girl [Katrina Rundhaug],
and a Michigan girl [Katie Erdman] and I caught them and kept on going. The
Was there ever a
point in the race where you knew you were having a great race and could qualify
for nationals?
The last half of the race I knew I had to keep going because if I slowed down I was going to get passed. I knew Jill Scully [Ball State] was up there and that most of the rest of the leaders were from Michigan, Michigan State, and Notre Dame so I knew I had a chance, but I just had to keep going. When I finished my parents told me I was 12th, they were the first people I saw, so unless there were some people up in the lead pack I didn’t know, I knew that I had a chance.
You didn’t qualify
for the state meet in high school, but here you are going to the NCAA
Championships. What do you attribute
your college success to?
Coming into my freshman year I had no idea what to expect. I was able to train on my own in high school so I kind of knew what training would be like – I didn’t expect it to be easy. The training I had with Bruce [Bruce Hostetler a neighbor and personal coach] helped me adapt to this training kind of easily. I understood more about training paces than some people did. Otherwise, just going out there and doing the workouts. Trusting in the workouts my coach gave me. I think a lot of it was my faith in God. I was given this ability and if I use it for Him he’s going to bless me through it.
Did the team
environment play any role?
Yes, I didn’t have a team in high school that could really run together or work together, so it’s really exciting for me to train with the girls and seeing our team do what we did on Saturday.
What are some of your
favorite workouts?
I like dynamic runs. We will do 6 miles, sometimes we do one mile fast, one mile easy, two miles at Medium Run pace, one mile easy and the last mile fast. Other times we alternate miles between Medium Run pace and a faster pace for six miles. The longer tempo runs I like. I like a variety of things, doing fast things and long things.
Are there other
things that you like to do?
I definitely think doing circuit-type things to keep the fitness level up and it helps me strength-wise too. I like doing core exercises and sprint drills and hurdle drills. Even though it’s not running I like to do that stuff. I think it helps.
Do you have any
advice for younger runners?
To believe in yourself. I didn’t know what ability I had until I started
doing things right. So
knowing that you can do it. Don’t
give up!