This is an interview with Del Sol senior Colin Smith.  This season Colin placed 3rd at the Las Vegas Invitational and had Nevada's fastest time at the Stanford Invitational (15:38 for 5K).

Q.  After a very impressive track season including 3 medals at the State Championship,

(1600, 3200 and 4x800), what did you do during the summer to prepare for the cross country season?

A. To be honest, not as much as I had hoped for. The late start to the training was the only negative aspect of it though. I started training at the start of July and tried to build all the base that I could. Most of the training was just putting in miles and a few tempo runs.

Q. You are limiting your meets this year, only running 1 weekday meet so far and skipping some local invitationals. What is your reasoning?

A. It is very difficult to balance training and so many races. Two races a week with training leaves me fatigued all the time. I would rather be fresh and fit to run the big invitationals now and later in the year.

Q.  15:48 PR at Stanford….Nice!! You also beat one of your state rivals, Bryan Jordan from Galena.  How did the race go for you?

A. It went exactly to plan. After running at LVI, I knew I had to start races off more aggressively and battle with the leaders. Obviously at Stanford there were people to not even try to run with, but my goal was to run my first mile in 4:50 which is exactly what happened. Jordan started off a bit faster than me and it wasn’t until the last half mile of the race that I caught him.

Q.  On paper, you’re the Sunrise Region favorite, Nick Hartle, from Centennial is the odds-on Sunset Region favorite and Bryan Jordan from Galena is the Northern Region favorite.  The three of you will battle it out at State.  Any thoughts (without revealing race strategy) on how the State Meet will go?

A. I honestly have no idea. That will be one of the races that I won’t be able to predict. I only raced Jordan once and who knows if he was feeling 100% or if his training has picked up its full game yet. Hartle will also be a great competitor, but I haven’t truly brought a race to him yet (not saying that I didn’t try at LVI, just that I had poor race strategy and confidence).

Q.  Are looking at any colleges in particular?

A. Occidental College I’m looking into. University of Portland also looks promising. I’ll have to figure out what exactly I want in college athletics: to come in as a freshman and make varsity or work my way into the top five or maybe even not at all.

Q.  Del Sol has never had a State Champion, team or individual.  Will you be the first?

A. Nothing is definite but it is my goal. I know I can race with the best in the state so it will just come down to who will be the fastest runner on the day.

Q.  With over a 4.00 GPA, how do you balance your training and academics?

A. It wouldn’t be so hard if running didn’t always tire me out every day. I have the time but it is often hard to do school work while my eyes are closing every 30 seconds.

Q.  Will you be running Footlocker in December? 

A. I haven’t decided yet; either footlocker or Nike. I was leaning towards Footlocker early in the season but I’ll do my research and see which one looks more promising

Q.  What are your goals for track season?

A. I just want to be in the best shape possible when the season starts. Vegas summers are absolutely dreadful, so the training will spike once I get into cooler weather over the winter. I’ll start setting goals once I see what kind of shape I can get in.

Q. What major invitationals will you be running in the spring?

A. I will definitely do Arcadia again and hopefully run in the invitational race. Also I want to do GSW. I don’t know what other meets there are so I’ll have to check.

Q.  What impressed you the most about the Stanford Invitational? (ex. Arcadia HS)

A. Arcadia obviously impressed me the most. If they aren’t the best team in the nation then I don’t know who is.

Q. Comparing times, you would be 6^th man on Arcadia’s team.  Care to comment? (Lends a new meaning to “Nevada Good”)

A. Arcadia seems to be in its own league. If you compared them with the best teams from forty other states, I’m sure there would still be no comparison. I feel there are runners in Nevada who are better than “Nevada Good”.