D3 Glory Days Podcast

Both National Champs in the same week? Kassie Parker won the 2021 Women’s Individual National Title on Saturday by running a D3 Course record down in Louisville. Kassie made her way to the front of the race from the start and never looked back. She was joined by Evie Miller for about 3k, which was the longest she had someone trailing her in a D3 race. While it wasn’t the time she wanted to run that day, she’ll be back next year to take a stab at sub 20:00 for the 6k.  Even after the victory, Kassie mentions it wasn’t the best executed race and that leaves her excited for another attempt. This was Kassie’s second time on D3 Glory Days as she was on the Track Contenders episode last spring. In Today’s episode, we go back to learn how a 5:25 1500m high school runner became a 2x National Champion.

Kassie found herself at a big state school, University of Iowa, running on their club team and wanting to be better at running. Her HS PBs of 5:25 (1500), 11:39 (3000), and 20:20 didn’t get her much attention from around Iowa. Yet, her past visit to Loras kept coming back up. As she decided she would transfer to Loras, she took a look at the D3 Record book and decided that she was going to break a D3 National Record. She’s unsure of where this confidence comes from, but attributes it to thinking nothing is impossible to accomplish.

Once at Loras, she took the training well and began dropping big PRs. The reality of what she was accomplishing so quickly didn’t set in as she thought it was normal to have 1+ minute PRs during the season. With these new PRs, she was ready to take on her first collegiate cross country season. She wasn’t afraid to mix up in the front pack and would find herself in the Top 5 at most races. She ended that season as 31st, earning her first All-America award.

Kassie is a unique National Champion as she spends her weeks running 5 days a week and cross-training the other two. Her background in Triathlons helps her while she cross-trains but is a big catalyst in keeping herself healthy.

Kassie confirms she will be using her remaining eligibility (1 XC season, 1 Indoor, 2 Outdoor) at Loras as a Graduate student. We’re not sure D3 was ready to hear that news.

Thank you goodr

A huge thanks to goodr for coming on and partnering with us. I hope you were able get a pair of sunglasses at the National Meet! If you didn’t get a pair National Meet, go to goodr.com and save 15% by using code GLORYDAYS at checkout.

goodr sunglasses are $25, non slip sunglasses that are stylish and make you run goodr. They provide 100% UV Protection and are 100% Polarized. Not only that they are a 100% carbon neutral company and give back 1% to the Planet. They're our favorite running sunglasses so go get yourself a pair!

Support D3 Glory Days

Be sure to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts!

If you would like to help support the podcast or say thanks to our writers, please consider making a donation on the D3 Glory Days Venmo. This helps offset some costs, hosting services, and help out our new writers.

If you want to rep D3 Glory Days on your next run, head to our Merch Store. And finally, follow us on social media! We’re on Instagram, Twitter and Strava.

Today on D3 Glory Days, we’re joined by the 2021 Men’s Individual Champion, Alex Phillip. The 2021 Champion made his initial move around the 5k mark to try to break open the field. Down the home stretch, Alex responded to a late kick from Elias Lindgren and overtook him with 100m remaining. Pure jubilation took over as Alex began to celebrate before the line as he pumped both his arms as he crossed. He didn’t have to wait long to hear that his team, John Carroll, had placed on the podium by finishing 4th. This was their first trophy in program history, completing the sweep of firsts (conference championship, regional championship) during the season. Alex has been D3 Glory Days twice before. Once on YouTube and most recently, on the Contenders Episode. We know Alex for who he is today, so in this episode, we take a step back to figure out how Alex became the 2021 XC National Champion.

Alex started his high school career with a hot start. Running 4:35, 10:00, and 16:10 his freshman year, he had eyes set on becoming a great high school runner. However, the team loved ultimate frisbee and threw the disc around more than the miles they ran, resulting in a regression for Alex over the next two years. His senior year, he realized he wanted to run in college and began taking running a little more seriously. He reduced his long-time PRs down to 4:28,  9:40, and 16:00. Yet, he wasn’t getting many looks from college coaches. The head coach of John Carroll, Kyle Basista, kept calling and kept sharing his vision for what John Carroll could become. Alex committed to John Carroll but wasn’t entirely sold on running. He was debating whether to go to Akron to be a normal student or commit 100% to running at JCU. He chose the latter and slowly built his mileage up.

When Alex commits to something, he goes all in. He trained super hard over the season running himself into the ground on most runs. Despite this tactic, he credits his big jumps his freshman year to it. He went on to finish 15th as a freshman as John Carroll made the national meet for the first time in school history. He and his teammates knew the next time they would be at the National Meet, something special would happen.

Alex took advantage of the non-racing schedule during COVID to increase his mileage, train consistently and pay attention to the small things. This resulted in a 5th place finish at the 2021 Outdoor National 10k and a Runner-Up in the 5k. While they were the results he had hoped, he left him wanting more heading into this cross country season.

Alex will be running a 5k up at Grand Valley State in 10 days and has eyes on Dan Mayer’s indoor 5k record of 13:53. When it comes to outdoors, he hopes to nab both the 5k and 10k records as well. With the determination and work ethic Alex shows, don’t be surprised if he finishes the season with multiple D3 Records.

Thank you goodr

A huge thanks to goodr for coming on and partnering with us. I hope you were able get a pair of sunglasses at the National Meet! If you won't be at the National Meet, get yourself a pair and save 15% by using code GLORYDAYS at checkout. Go to goodr.com and use code GLORYDAYS for 15% off.

goodr sunglasses are $25, non slip sunglasses that are stylish and make you run goodr. They provide 100% UV Protection and are 100% Polarized. Not only that they are a 100% carbon neutral company and give back 1% to the Planet. They're our favorite running sunglasses so go get yourself a pair!

What a day in Louisville! Emily Richards and Jordan Carpenter come back on the podcast to discuss all the action. Quite a historic days with Alex Phillip breaking the Championship record, Kassie breaking the D3 Course Record and Pomona-Pitzer breaking the total team time record. 

How to Support D3 Glory Days

As always, we really appreciate your support of this podcast. If you’d like to help spread the word, share the podcast with a friend, or leave us a review wherever you’re listening. 

If you would like to help support the podcast, please consider making a donation on the D3 Glory Days Venmo. This helps offset some costs, hosting services, and help out our new writers.

If you want to rep D3 Glory Days on your next run, head to our Merch Store. And finally, follow us on social media! We’re on Instagram, Twitter and Strava.

We sat down with 6 contenders to discuss their season so far and what they're looking forward to this weekend. It was great to learn more about them and hear about their seasons.

Tylers Morris: 3:36

Danielle Page: 16:36

Alex Phillip: 30:49

Fiona Smith: 44:50

Joe Freiburger: 59:05

Ari Marks: 1:12:20

These are the time stamps for each runner.

Support our Partner

A huge thanks to goodr for coming on and partnering with us. Not only are they sponsoring the episode, they gave some glasses to give away at the National Meet. If you won't be at the National Meet, get yourself a pair and save 15% by using code GLORYDAYS at checkout. Go to goodr.com and use code GLORYDAYS for 15% off.

goodr sunglasses are $25, non slip sunglasses that are stylish and make you run goodr. They provide 100% UV Protection and are 100% Polarized. Not only that they are a 100% carbon neutral company and give back 1% to the Planet. They're our favorite running sunglasses so go get yourself a pair! 

How to Support D3 Glory Days

As always, we really appreciate your support of this podcast. If you’d like to help spread the word, share the podcast with a friend, or leave us a review wherever you’re listening. We’re 3 away from 100 reviews so 3 of you need to get us to 100.

If you would like to help support the podcast, please consider making a donation on the D3 Glory Days Venmo. This helps offset some costs, hosting services, and help out our new writers.

If you want to rep D3 Glory Days on your next run, head to our Merch Store. And finally, follow us on social media! We’re on Instagram, Twitter and Strava.

Conference weekend shook up the rankings! We saw streaks continued, first ever conference titles, and upsets across the Nation.

Emily Richards comes back to help recap the weekend and go over our latest Top 10 rankings.

Check out the rest of the Top 32

As always, we really appreciate your support of this podcast. If you’d like to help spread the word, share the podcast with a friend, or leave us a review wherever you’re listening.

If you would like to help support the podcast, please consider making a donation on the D3 Glory Days Venmo. This helps offset some costs, hosting services, and help out our new writers.

If you want to rep D3 Glory Days on your next run, head to our Merch Store. And finally, follow us on social media! We’re on Instagram, Twitter and Strava.

David Cooper began running after an injury took him out of wrestling. He quickly converted his competitive spirit from the mats to the track. Running came naturally to him while he would cut weight in wrestling and after he had quick success during his junior year of high school, he wanted to see how far he could take running.

On his campus visit to Mount Union, his conversation with legendary coach John Homon and the atmosphere on campus had him hooked. Add in his experience from the Army and David was prepared to take on the college transition.

His first semester on campus was used to get him back in shape while training with some of the top guys in the country. His confidence spiked as he knew he could go to well every Tuesday with these guys. This resulted in his first OAC XC title as a freshman and he would ultimately not give up that title.

He suffered a major setback as a sophomore when he finished 169th at the national meet. At that point, he was a 2x OAC champ, 1x AA and felt prepared to be in the Top 10. He used the feeling of disappointment to fuel the rest of his career. After that meet, he would leave a national meet as either an All American or a National Champion.

When David hung up his spike, he left Mount Union as a 3x XC All American, 4x OAC XC Champ, and 7x National Champion with 4 other All American performances in track. He credits this success to the fear of losing. When he started to win National Titles, he knew he had a target on his back and was motivated to not give his title up.

On the impact from his team:

“I always try to circle back to the team that I joined because I wouldn't be talking to you guys today if it wasn't for the team of freshmen that I came in with.”

On the Impact of training and racing:

And so for me, it was more or less just knowing that if you're doing the work [it’ll pay off].  We used to say this all the time,  you're doing the work during the week and you're collecting your paycheck on the weekend.”

On Finishing 169th as a Sophomore:

“I remember thinking, like, hold on to this moment for training. Hold on to this moment as I go into future races because this is exactly why you train for these things to not happen.”

On his training Senior Year:

“If I came out of practice on a Tuesday and I didn't have crutches, then it wasn't a good practice.”

Advice for the Post Season:

“You have to go into these races with that chip on your shoulder, being convinced that nobody can beat you or be better than you on that particular day. You have four big races like that in a career right for nationals, it's all you get. So it's time to go out there and collect your paycheck.”

How to Support D3 Glory Days

As always, we really appreciate your support of this podcast. If you’d like to help spread the word, share the podcast with a friend, or leave us a review wherever you’re listening. We’re 3 away from 100 reviews so 3 of you need to get us to 100.

If you would like to help support the podcast, please consider making a donation on the D3 Glory Days Venmo. This helps offset some costs, hosting services, and help out our new writers.

If you want to rep D3 Glory Days on your next run, head to our Merch Store. And finally, follow us on social media! We’re on Instagram, Twitter and Strava.

Jordan Carpenter rejoins D3 Glory Days to break down the latest Top 10 rankings as well as tease the top 32 rankings.

We saw some great performances this weekend and we’re looking to see things shake up as we head into the postseason next week.

Full Top 32 Rankings can be found here.

Read Emily Richard’s recap of Oberlin

Read Nate Holley's recap of Augustana

As always, we really appreciate your support of this podcast. If you’d like to help spread the word, share the podcast with a friend, or leave us a review wherever you’re listening. We’re 3 away from 100 reviews so 3 of you need to get us to 100.

If you would like to help support the podcast, please consider making a donation on the D3 Glory Days Venmo. This helps offset some costs, hosting services, and help out our new writers.

If you want to rep D3 Glory Days on your next run, head to our Merch Store. And finally, follow us on social media! We’re on Instagram, Twitter and Strava.

We've updated our Top 10 Rankings as we head into the last big weekend in the regular season. There are 4 major Inter Regional meets this weekend that will give the nation a better idea of where everyone stands. Before we went into the rankings, Bijan came on to explain his LACCTiC website to help you understand how it works and how to use it. 

After Bijan, Emily Richards came onto to help unveil the new top 10 Rankings. Let us know on Social Media what you think.

Women's Top 10:

Men's Top 10

As always, we really appreciate your support of this podcast. If you’d like to help spread the word, share the podcast with a friend, or leave us a review wherever you’re listening.

If you would like to help support the podcast, please consider making a donation on the D3 Glory Days Venmo. This helps offset some costs, hosting services, and help out our new writers.

If you want to rep D3 Glory Days on your next run, head to our Merch Store. And finally, follow us on social media! We’re on Instagram, Twitter and Strava.

This past weekend was a big weekend for D3 Cross Country. Teams are starting to show their true colors and individuals are beginning to have break out races. Tom Sawyer Park played host to the D3 Pre National Meet to give teams and athletes a preview of what’s to come in November. We mentioned this in last week’s episode that the real season is beginning. Simon Heys and Evie Bultemeyer came away with the individual titles. Both had similar race strategies as they hung out in the pack, matched every move, and waited until it was time to make their own move.

Evie is familiar with these big races. She is a 4x All American in Track and in 2019 placed 8th at Cross Country Nationals - yet still sees this as a big win for her career. This seas is different for her as she is off campus getting her Master’s Degree and doesn’t have the luxury of being around her teammates. However, the power of FaceTime has allow Evie to stay close with her team during this time. She’s up to her highest mileage ever and is getting excited for the end of the year meets and hopes to help her team qualify for the National Meet.

Simon calls this the biggest win of his career. He’s fresh off his first National Meet last spring in the 10k and is hungry to improve upon his 13th place finish. He gets fired up about how strong his conference (OAC) is and how that competition will prepare him for the National meet. With this win, he’s beginning to view himself a little differently as a runner and is adjusting his already big goals.

This was a great conversation to get insight into their races and hear from current student-athletes. Want more information from this weekend, read our Meet Recap article by Emily Richards.

As always, we really appreciate your support of this podcast. If you’d like to help spread the word, share the podcast with a friend, or leave us a review wherever you’re listening.

If you would like to help support the podcast, please consider making a donation on the D3 Glory Days Venmo. This helps offset some costs, hosting services, and help out our new writers.

Want to rep D3 Glory Days on your next run? Head to our Merch Store! And finally, follow us on social media! We’re on Instagram, Twitter and Strava.

We said we were going to do it and we finally did. Here are our rankings as we head into the real part of the season. With Pre-Nats and Paul Short this weekend, the D3 Landscape will take shape. For now, we ranked the top 10 and as the season progresses we will get to the top 32.

For this we relied on Bijan Mazaheri's Website: LACCTIC - A great simulation and ranking tool to see where your team lines up. You can simulate any team with any team! Check it out.

Women's Top 10:

Men's Top 10

As mentioned in the show, this was a fun way to bring some excitement to the sport. If you have an issue with the rankings, run faster! However, we'd love to hear your feedback so let us know on social media or send us an email [email protected]

As always, we really appreciate your support of this podcast. If you’d like to help spread the word, share the podcast with a friend, or leave us a review wherever you’re listening.

If you would like to help support the podcast, please consider making a donation on the D3 Glory Days Venmo. This helps offset some costs and hosting services.

If you want to rep D3 Glory Days on your next run, head to our Merch Store. And finally, follow us on social media! We’re on Instagram, Twitter and Strava.

All artwork done for this by Maddie Bahr.