Men's Track and Field | 2/21/2017 6:10:00 PM
Being a multi event track athlete is one of the more difficult things to do in track. Along with the long and exhausting meets comes a host of other issues such as staying healthy, making sure to train for everything equally, and maintaining the motivation to get better even through summer and winter break.
I came to college as a walk-on 800 runner and a cross country athlete. After the indoor season my freshman year, I decided doing purely distance was not the life for me. I was already much bigger than most the other distance runners and mentally I wasn't there anymore. I considered retiring and focusing only on school but part of me just couldn't do it.
I devoted many years in high school to running and getting better so that I could make it to college as not only a student but also an athlete. Keeping that thought as my driving factor for getting better, I met with my coaches and asked to be moved over to the multi events. Hesitantly, they told me that if I wanted to I could. So I started training during that spring. The transition was not easy whatsoever. It was rough learning all these events that I had never done before but I was perusing my dream of being a better athlete one event at a time.
I had a couple great coaches who taught me just about everything I know now and there is no way I would be where I am today without them. To stay as close as I could to the sport, I volunteered my time during the summer at the local track club as a coach for some of the younger athletes. This helped me to maintain my passion for the sport. I knew when I got back to school for fall training that I was there for more than my own pleasure. I was there to show my kids what it takes to be an athlete. I knew they looked up to me and it became my goal to be the best decathlete I could.
A few years later, here I am; competing at a high caliber level against some of the best athletes that the Big Sky has to offer, but my mind set has yet to stray. I'm still doing this out of pure love for track and because I know there are kids back home who look up to me. I still put in hours of work each day because I know what it takes to achieve greatness. I've never been stronger than I am now, both physically and mentally, and I'm ready to show that to everyone else with these next two years of track.
