Summer often ends far too soon for those collegiate athletes competing in fall sports.
For local All-Americans Matt McClintock and Bethanie Brown, another year of racing around the course and oval is nearly here.
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Brown, a graduate of Waterville Senior High School, will leave Maine next week to begin her sophomore year at Iowa State University. If her second cross country season is anything like the first, it certainly promises to be a special year for the rising sophomore.
Last fall Brown became the sixth freshman in Iowa State cross country history to garner All-American honors, and later went on to have very successful indoor and outdoor track campaigns.
“Definitely (last) year was a busy year for me, first year at college so I definitely have been resting a bit, as well as just kind of getting myself ready for the fall cross country season,” Brown said.
The former Purple Panther also put together an impressive performance in the class room, finishing her first year with a 4.0 grade point average. Brown said juggling her athletic and academic careers was stressful at times, but putting forth her best effort in everything she does is just how she is wired.
“I’m someone who has to do things as best I can. I’m not good at settling at anything less than that,” she said. “Sometimes it can be a little stressful to have that sort of personality in a way because I work really hard at school but I also work really hard at running. In a way it’s just kind of who I am. I just try and do my best.”
Like Brown, McClintock has also enjoyed a great deal of success at the next level.
The Madison graduate is entering his third year at Purdue University and is coming off one of the best years in Boilermaker history.
As a sophomore, McClintock set new school records in the 3,000 and 5,000 in indoor track — as well as in the 5,000 in outdoor — and also garnered All-American status after finishing 37th at the NCAA Cross Country Championships. He was also one of nine Purdue track and field athletes to earn USTFCCCA A All-Academic status for maintaining a GPA of at least 3.25 in addition to his achievements on the track.
The former Bulldog standout is set to fly back to campus next week but said he has taken it easy as far as training goes this summer.
“I took a lot of time off and now I’m slowly getting back into running,” he said. “I won’t be getting into big, hard workouts until beginning of October.”
For as good of a year he had last cross country, season, McClintock said he believes he is capable of better and the plan is to taper his training around getting ready for the championship meets at season’s end.
“We’re trying to gear all my training to get me peaking sometime in November,” McClintock said. “I was running really well in October (last year) and started to fall off in November.”
Evan Crawley—621-5640
ecrawley@mainetoday.com
Twitter: Evan_Crawley
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