Sport: Cross-country
Grade: Redshirt senior
Hometown: Boulder, Colorado
by Karen Garcia |
How did you feel about your team’s performance in the NCAA West Regionals?
It went really well. For most teams, the West Regional is really important because that’s how they qualify for nationals, and if you’re in the top one or two it’s an automatic qualification. We had beaten so many good teams earlier in the year so it wasn’t a shoo-in. We still had to be there and be competitive, but we didn’t have too much stress. We beat Stanford, who took third, and it was Stanford’s home course. It’s really good to beat them, to beat such a prestigious school, because with that comes a lot of hype. And we like to be one of the teams that are hyped.
It’s been a really successful year for cross-country overall?
Yeah, for sure. But you never really know until Nationals, until the big show, which is this coming weekend.
How long have you been running cross country?
I’ve been running since freshman year of high school, this is my ninth year running--it’s been a long time. I’m getting really old. I feel really old.
Are you graduating this year?
I am. I’m finishing up a master’s degree, so I’m lucky—I finished my undergrad in three and a half years here, and then I started my graduate degree. I’m getting my MBA, and I’m in the second semester of the three semesters that I’ll do.
What other things are you involved in?
I really pursued my career early on because I studied entrepreneurship, so I have a menswear brand that I started called Black Ribbon. When most people hear that I started a clothing company, they think ‘Oh, that’s cool, maybe you printed some T-shirts.’ But I’m actually getting material from Hong Kong, it’s made in the USA, it’s made in Los Angeles. I’m already talking about getting it in stores across the country.
What stores do you want to see your clothing in?
High-end menswear or high-end running stores. I work part-time for a boutique called Machus, downtown (Portland). It’s the most popular menswear clothing store of people in their 20s to 30s in Oregon. So they have a really good rep, and luckily they want to carry the line. I also have Boulder Running Company, which is in Boulder, Colorado. I’m talking to Union Los Angeles. And a few others in New York—my twin sister works in the fashion industry.
How do you even get started with a project like a clothing company?
I started in Entrepreneurial Scholars in my undergrad here, and the idea was already in my mind from freshman year, because I was like, “I hate all clothing I run in, I wish there was something cool I could wear outside of running that if people saw me they’d know that I’m a dude that cares about fitness, about running, but he’s not in spandex. ” There’s just nothing like that. Women have Lululemon and all this other stuff, but men don’t have anything.
How do you fit everything you’re doing into your life?
I kind of take a look at my plate and see what’s important to me. Running is really important to me, so I put nothing ahead of running, I don’t put school ahead of running. I know people would frown upon that, but I don’t really care.
My grades don’t impact anyone around me, but my running and my performance is going to impact my teammates forever and my program forever. It’s just about adjusting what I care about and what’s important to me. It goes: running, shortly after that my company Black Ribbon, and then I would say my friends and family—those relationships, and then school.
I’ve got one degree, and it was really hard, and now I’m working on another degree and it’s hard in different ways, but I’ve just learned to suck it up and handle it, get Bs and Cs. I’m not an A student, I won’t say I am, nor do I intend to be.
For a lot of people, the college mentality involves competition in grades, what is it about you that you think makes you feel at ease?
I was talking to my teammates and they told me, “You have the most stuff on your plate, and you’re the most relaxed of any of us.” And yeah—I got up this morning at 5 a.m., and I went to yoga at 6 a.m., and you know, I meditated and I got a massage and I took care of my body--.
You got a massage today?
I did, which was amazing. Much needed. Book smarts are great, but I would never hire someone who can’t communicate or be around people, and that’s always been important to me.
