D3 Glory Days Podcast

As we enter the busy part of the XC season, we award the next batch of D3 Glory Days Runner of the Week Awards. For the first time in this young award, the runners hail from the same college. Week 4 winners are John Lucey and Genna Girard from Williams College.

After winning the Little 3 Championship last weekend, John Lucey continued his winning ways in 2023. This time, he crossed the line first at his home invite: Purple Valley. Once a bigger invite, Purple Valley still attracts strong team including last year’s national champs: MIT.

Up front, Lucey led his teammates to a 1-2-3 victory which helped pave the way for an early season victory over MIT. Lucey knows where they’re at in the season but gains confidence from this individual and team victories. Lucey was an All-American last year and has goal to improve upon his 18th place finish.

Genna Girard officially opened her 2023 season with a commanding victory. With her win by almost a minute, Girard was excited to get back to racing. She suffered an injury during the indoor track season and wasn’t able to race Outdoors. Girard wasn’t sure what to expect in this first race and was aiming to keep it a controlled effort. And she did just that. With her only competition coming from MIT, Girard was able to pull away from them early and never looked back.

Girard brings a great perspective on how to handle injuries. In the episode, she goes into how she has grown as a runner as she reflects on her tendencies earlier in college. Girard is excited to be back healthy and running with her teammates. She was an All-American in XC back in 2021 and after missing a top 40 spot last year, she has her eyes set on that recognition again.

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A new week brings a new set of Runners of the Week.

We honor James Settles and Olivia Pisacano as the Week 3 D3 Glory Days Runners of the Week!

James Settles won his race out in Denver in 24:50. The senior from Colorado College is coming off a breakout year where he finished 4th in the Outdoor 5k and ran 14:08. Settles finished 60th last year and has found a new sense of confidence that is helping him make the leap. While getting to the national meet is important, Settles wants to make sure he can help his team get there as well.

This summer made James realize where he fit within the Nation. Prior to this season, he would look at guys within his region and think he could never compete with them. Now after finishing 4th, he finds himself training with those same guys this summer. Settles is going to continue to ride his confidence into the season and is excited to see where his fitness is once they head to sea level for the Augustana Meet.

Each season there seems to be a breakout star in the D3 ranks. This season, we think Olivia Pisacano has what it takes to make that leap. Going through the COVID season and sustaining multiple injuries, Pisacano is finally training healthy for the first time in her college career. She has stacked healthy seasons together which resulted in a season debut 6k of 21:13. While the RPI course is new and we can’t compare it to last season, the leading indicators are showing a breakout. She was the #1 runner for RPI while she didn’t crack the top five last season. She finished 2nd behind All-Ameican RPI Alum, Jamie Lord.

Prior to this cross country season, Pisacano dropped her 5k personal best down 17:33. Having been to nationals in both cross country and on the DMR, Olivia will take that experience with her new found fitness. With health on her side, she isn’t getting too far ahead of herself. She sets micro goals to keep her in check and makes sure she can accomplish something each practice and race. Most importantly, she’s having fun. We’ll see Pisacano more this season and will keep an eye on the results at the Pre-National Meet.

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We're on to week 2 of the Runner of the Week Awards.

This week we came across a duo from UW-Whitewater that crossed the finish line at basically the same time. Gunner Schlender and Christian Patzka opened up their season is dominating fashion by gapping the field by over a minute.

The duo earns the 'Pocket Aces' award as we get a glimpse of what their hand could be this year. The duo could be regarded as the best duo in the country and they fill us in on how their team will look. Plus, we get a peak at their summer training and what they're looking forward to this summer.

Fiona Smith opened up her season with a statement. A two minute victory and dipping under 17 minutes for a 5k is a great way to start your senior season.

Fiona comes into this season as the favorite and talks about having been the favorite during Indoor has helped ease the pressure off herself. With a 6th place finish at regionals last year, this year her goal is to help her team get to the national meet. They'll be flying out to Conn College to take on the East Coast teams and get some much needed out of region wins.

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We’re excited to bring you something new this season. In an effort to continue to support and grow D3XCTF, we felt the next best step would be to bring weekly awards.

Introducing the D3 Glory Days Runner of the Week Award.

We’ll scan results each week for the athletes and teams we thought had the best performance. Some weeks may not be meet winners or those that ran the fastest. We’ll do our best to go beyond what the results show. But some weeks the winners and fastest will prevail.

How to Support D3 Glory Days:

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Emily Richards comes back to D3 Glory Days as a guest.

She gives us an update on her post collegiate running. The 9x D3 Champ had a contract with Hoka but lost the contract during COVID. She now runs with Tracksmith in their amateur development program.

Emily shares her journey of running without a contract and where she fits in the sport of running.

She's made 7 US championships and is still eyeing the sub 2 barrier. This season she was very consistent running 2:00, 2:01 and 2:02 but just missed breaking the barrier.

She also goes into how coaching at Ohio Northern has impacted her running.

Emily shares great insight into keeping the dream alive.

How to Support D3 Glory Days:

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"I had such a low opinion of myself after going through the addiction that I thought, 'I am not going to be mediocre at anything that I do in my life.'"

The endurance athlete masters' superstar, Ken Rideout, joins D3 Glory Days. We extend our first non running invitation to Ken as he played D3 Football and Hockey at Framingham State.

Ken takes us through his July where he competed and won the Gobi March. The Gobi March is a 155 mile trek through the Gobi Desert and is absolutely insane challenge.

Ken brings an incredible outlook on endurance sports and how he's able to push himself so hard.

A lot of that comes from his opioid addiction. He talks about the vital role endurance sports had in his sobriety.

Ken covers a lot and you'll want to go run 10 miles after this.

Learn more about Ken here.

How to Support D3 Glory Days:

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2x Shot Put champion Roger Steen joins D3 Glory Days to recap his meet out at USAs, his time at UW-Eau Claire, and how coaching has been so impactful to his own throwing.

Roger went to UW-Eau Claire with the intention of just playing football. After the season, he wanted to continue competing and asked to try out for track and field. With a strong program, Steen felt behind in his training and actually thought he was going to get cut.

He continued to put the training in and at his first national meet, finished third.

After a disappointing finish his junior year, Steen and Eau Claire set out to make things right. His senior year he won both shot put titles. That gave him a taste of what he could do.

He made his first Olympic Trials in 2016 and has steadily improved each year.

This year he has thrown a PB of 22.08m and finished 8th at USAs.

He plans to compete next season to earn a spot on the Olympic team.

Follow his journey on Instagram.

How to Support D3 Glory Days:

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When Annika Urban stepped off the track for the final time in Rochester, NY, she would move on from a D3 career as a two time national champion.

It’s an incredible story of determination and falling in love with the process when you realize she finished 266th in the 2019 Cross Country National Championships.

She credits her first big jump to being competitive with her brother. Over COVID, they would run a lot together and she didn’t want to lose her runs to him. Annika began stacking her days together and enjoyed the process.

As she became a better a runner, she didn’t let that affect that way she viewed herself. She continued to get this nervous excitement for races and went to practice excited to run with her teammates everyday.

It’s clear she cherished her time at Emory and the experiences she shared with her teammates. While many runners will be using their final year of eligibility, Annika is heading into the real world. She’ll be working for the US News and World Report while still training with Coach Linh Nguyen, her college coach.

If you need to be inspired today, listen to Annika!

How to Support D3 Glory Days:

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"I found something I can do well in and want to keep excelling in every day to see my family be proud of me."

Sam Blaskowski joins D3 Glory Days to talk records, team culture, and life after UW-La Crosse. Bad news for the rest of D3, Sam isn't going anywhere.

Sam takes us through the national meet with the highs of winning and setting a record, to the lows of watching Ethan Gregg get DQ'd.

We learn why the UW-La Crosse team has such a strong team culture and it feeds into his passion for team success over individual success.

Sam goes into what he's looking to do in the future. He plans on staying at UW-La Crosse with the goal of going pro. He wants to see how far track and field can take him. After all, he's basically just getting started with the sport.

A fun conversation with a surprise guest.

How to Support D3 Glory Days:

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"I was saying, 'yay, yay, yay,' in my head the minute I started not seeing anyone with me at all. You just get closer to the finish line and it's like, 'wow, this is mine.'"

Michelle Kwafo describes the feeling of pulling away from the field to win her first national title. Not only did she win the national title, but she set the new D3 100m Record in the process. 11.49 (+0.5 m/s) is now the standard in D3 sprinting. She had lowered the record from 11.64 to 11.62 in prelims and shaved off even more in the final.

On top of that, she finished runner up in the 100mH running the #4 All-Conditions time of 13.56. She started track as a hurdler so she has a special place for hurdles. For her to finish runner up and dip into the 13s was something she never expected.

Michelle takes us through what it's been like to train at Coast Guard and the extended responsibilities she has that most college students don't. She breaks down what her career in the Coast Guard looks like. There was some hope of her finishing her eligibility with a full-ride to a D1 schools, however, the Coast Guard has rejected that. IF you're the decision making in this process, let Michelle run!

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How to Support D3 Glory Days:

⁠⁠D3 Glory Days Venmo⁠⁠.

⁠⁠We launched a Patreon!⁠⁠

⁠⁠Subscribe and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts⁠⁠

⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠Strava⁠⁠.

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