What’s the best part about being on the track and field team?

I would say the conference meet, because you get there and you’ve trained with these people the whole season. The amazing things you accomplish, you know that it’s through all the hard work you put in with your teammates every day. It’s a good feeling to say, “We did this together.” When you look at all of our points, you can’t just say it’s from one person — it’s from the entire team.

Do you have any goals for the upcoming outdoor track season?

I’ve got a few. The guys did not finish as well as we had hoped during the indoor conference meet, so a big goal is to improve on what we did in this indoor season and have a really great outdoor conference meet, which is exactly what we did last year. On a more individual level, nationals is a big goal for this outdoor season. Hopefully it shouldn’t be a problem, but it has always been a big goal of mine.

You spoke about the men’s team not performing as well as you had hoped. What changes need to happen in order for the men to be more competitive in the NCAC at the outdoor conference meet?

I think going outside will give our taller sprinters a little advantage, like [senior] Shawn [Chrapczynski]. Getting on those wider turns [around the track]. I feel like we’re all much more comfortable outside than inside. We just got to keep working hard.

You were named the NCAC Male Field Athlete of the Year at the indoor conference meet. Were you expecting to win that award? Did it cross your mind at all before the competition started? Before the meet started?

No; I was thinking, “I hope I hold together and finish the meet.” The last two years, I have been able to complete the triple jump on the first day, but on the second day, I’ve always been too injured or too sore to compete in the long jump. So this year after the triple jump ended, I knew I had to keep it together and not let that happen again. And yeah, everything worked out, but no, I was not expecting that.

Other than your own events (jumps and short sprints), what events would you want to try?

I really want to be a thrower; I really want to be a distance runner. I don’t know. I’d probably really want to try some type of multi-events thing. Four years is really not enough time to try all of the things that I want to try.

Who on the team pushes you hardest during practice?

Shawn pushes me pretty hard in the long jump. In terms of distances, Shawn and I have been pretty close. So in the long jump, there’s a little competition there; we push each other. Other than that, Coach [Ray] Harris pushes me really, really hard.

What’s your favorite part of spring?

Besides baseball, spring track, probably. When the weather’s nice, the campus is so beautiful. That, and having a nice lazy afternoon and going to practice in the beautiful weather.

Who is your favorite baseball player?

I really like Mariano Rivera, obviously, because I am a big Yankees fan. I also like the [Texas] Rangers’ [Yu] Darvish. I’ve been following him for a while now, and I am super excited that he’s finally playing in the MLB this year.