We sit down with 6 coaches to review their seasons and what they're excited for the D3 Cross Country National Championship. They all bring a unique perspective to their situation and provide valuable insights for runners and coaches. You'll hear themes of positivity and building of team cultures. You get a sense of why these programs are contending for a national title. Time Stamp 2:34 - Donna Ricks - Carleton 12:28 - Derek Stanley - UW-La Crosse 24:06 - Ryan Chapman - Wartburg 40:58 -...

The interregional weekend proved to be an exciting weekend. With strong performances all over the country, we’re highlight two pairs that ran well together and for their team. Two Pocket Aces Awards today. The Pocket Aces award on the Men’s side goes to Frank Csorba and Chasen Hunt. Frank and Chasen went 1-2 at the Mike Woods Invite and led Lynchburg to a runner-up performance. We spoke to them about the season so far, their summer training, and how placing 30th last year has been a key...

Teams from all over the country traveled to Pennsylvania to get a look at the National Meet course. Typically the Pre-National meet is circled on the calendar and produces great performances. The CMS women flew from California and put on a show. They won 51-99 over MIT and put 5 in the top 15. We're joined today by Nat Bitetti and Elle Marsyla who finished 2nd and 5th. Nat and Elle go into the dynamics of traveling across the country during the season, their team goals, and who is more...

The D3 Cross Country season is heating up. The big meets are approaching and the performances are taking it up a notch. For Week 5, we’re bring back the Pocket Aces award and recognizing someone who faired well against strong competition. The Pocket Aces award goes to Morgan Uhlhorn + Grace Richardson from NYU. This duo finished third and fourth at the Paul Short Brown Race which helped NYU take the team win. Last year, we saw a resurgence from the NYU squad and Grace Richardson was a big...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

"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...

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...

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...

"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...

"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...

The 2023 D3 Outdoor track and field national championships are here! We sit down with four athletes to hear how their season went, what they’re looking forward to in Rochester, and how they handle the big meet. Four unique storylines from these athletes were uncovered: Max Svienty - massive progression in college Natalia Sawyer - almost didn’t run college Matt McBride - keeping with the Mt. Union tradition Gabby Noland - coming back after time off with her extra eligibility All four...

Fresh off a 4minute PR and an OTQ, Jesse Joseph joins D3 Glory Days. One look at Jesse’s TFRRs and his marathon PR, and you see a classic story of progression. Jesse didn’t see a breakthrough in his running until his senior year. That’s when he finally made the varsity cross country team and qualified for the 10k outdoors. That breakthrough was everything he needed to keep going with running. After graduation, he moved up to Portland, Oregon where he immersed himself in the running culture....

"I trust my training for the past three years. It hasn't failed me" Christian Patzka joins D3 Glory Days to talk about his exciting 5k championship, what he looks forward to this season, and why he's trusted his training through college. In this era of running, you can find what other people are doing very easily. Patzka doesn't get caught up in what others do and continues to trust the way he's been training throughout college. He came into Whitewater as a 4:30/9:40 type high school...

"There was so much joy, not just at the finish line, but throughout the whole time." Fresh off of winning the Carmel Marathon in 2:33, we welcome Parley Hannan back to D3 Glory Days. The 3x D3 Champion from Ithaca ran an OTQ in her debut marathon. She takes us through her training and how she necessarily wasn't planning to run a marathon. She also is very honest and open with us about her disordered eating and how it impacted her today. Much of her early running post collegiately was a...

"He [Isaac] did it for me because that's what we do here" We welcome Ethan Gregg to his full episode. After his exciting Indoor National weekend and running 28:40, we wanted to learn more about the biggest grinder in D3. This is another case of an average high school runner (4:41/9:45 1600/3200) making the mental switch of wanting to be great. It's clear from Ethan's mindset that he is willing to do anything to get the job done. And as we peeled it all back, it comes down to his teammates....

You thought your track meets were busy? Try doing a pentathlon plus two individual events. That was the workload Victoria Kadiri had at this year's indoor national meet. She came away with two national titles, a fifth place finish in the pent and a new D3 Record in the triple jump. She has won 5 total D3 Titles. Victoria becomes the first woman indoors to break the 13m barrier and the second in D3 history. Her indoor record is the longest triple jump in D3 history. Victoria brought a lot of...

Kenadee Wayt went into the national meet with four events on her schedule and walked away as a three time All-American AND a national champion. With the experience she had from last year's quadruple, Wayt was able to capitalize on her momentum and use her new training style to lead to her first national title. Kenadee takes us through her weekend on balancing the busy schedule, riding the momentum and what it was like having to wait to see if she won the 200. A big turning point for her was...

We kick off conversations from Indoor Nationals with Joseph White! The D3 Record holder in the Weight Throw joins us to talk about his weekend where he came away with two national titles. He takes us into his mindset during the competition after essentially winning both competitions on his first throw. We go into his career progression of what he's done to make huge improvements in a short amount of time. The spark notes: be intentional. BPN Ambassador We’re excited to be Ambassadors for...

In a two part episode, we sit down with 7 athletes getting ready to compete at the D3 Indoor Track and Field national championships. We discuss how their season has gone so far, tactics they use to stay calm before big meets, and any predictions they may have. Time Stamp Cheick Traore - 200/400, Ramapo - 2:25 Mike Jasa - 800, 4x4, DMR, Loras - 18:32 Yakob Ekoue - SP/WT, UW-Eau Claire, 36:35 BPN Ambassador We’re excited to be Ambassadors for Bare Performance Nutrition. A supplement...

In a two part episode, we sit down with 7 athletes getting ready to compete at the D3 Indoor Track and Field national championships. We discuss how their season has gone so far, tactics they use to stay calm before big meets, and any predictions they may have. Time Stamp Jaidyn Appel - High Jump, Tufts - 2:31 Birgen Nelson - 60mH, Gustavus Aldophus - 21:17 Adalia Coleman - 60m, Bridgewater, 37:31 Fiona Smith - 3k/5k, St. Benedict, 53:09 BPN Ambassador We’re excited to be Ambassadors...

Jack Pinho returns to D3 Glory Days after breaking 4 at the BU Valentine Invite! We had him on originally as Episode 52 in the summer of 2021. He was coming off a strong track season but still had ambitions of breaking 4. We said we would have him back on the show once he did it and sure enough, he did! Jack brings a great perspective on how to balance life and running. He takes us through the struggles he had leading up to this and how his why kept him going when he was hurt for four months...