Post-Notre Dame comments from Tim Connelly, Tiffany McWilliams and Al Schmidt

Reported by Chris Fox

Molly Huddle led Notre Dame to a team title at their 2003 home invitational. (Photo: Chris Fox)

Tim Connelly's Notre Dame squad won the Notre Dame Invitational on their home course October 3. Al Schmidt's Mississippi State team finished tenth, led by NCAA 1,500m champion Tiffany McWilliams' sixth-place individual finish.

Tim Connelly

On his team's performance:
It was about what I expected. I knew we were going to be a little short at five, because we didn't run a couple of kids — Stephanie Madia and Maggie Nelson. We may not have Lori (King). She just had her knee scoped a couple of weeks ago. Stephanie will race the next meet (Pre-Nationals). She just had sore shins and wasn't ready to race.

I thought our first four ran great. Megan Johnson — that was her first race back. She really struggled last fall. She looked great. Kerry Meagher looked awesome. The first two were pretty good (laughing).

We've got to get better at five. We can, though… that's the thing. Kerry Meagher was three; Megan Johnson was four; Jean Marinangelli was five. Jean has trouble on a course like this, just can't do it. Amy Kohlmeier really struggled, [it was] her first race, she'll be fine, she's pretty talented.

On Tiffany McWilliams being in the race:
They knew. They really expected her to go out a lot harder, it didn't go out as hard as they anticipated. We didn't get out very well, and everybody was kind of chasing and zigging and zagging.

On their #3 national ranking:
We don't talk about rankings. If you look at them, there's some silly stuff. If you look at Stanford... They're the best team in the country. They're pretty good. That stuff doesn't mean anything until November. We try to teach them not to worry about stuff like that — just worry about being as good as you can be. That's what we're trying to do.

On goal-setting:
We never talk about individual goals in cross country. All we talk about is team stuff. So obviously, like Lauren and Molly have the potential to run together. It's not realistic for me to tell our fifth runner to run with them. We try to approach racing [in a way] that's going to maximize everybody's potential.

On the team's summer training:
They were here all summer going to summer school. They trained pretty hard.

Tiffany McWilliams and Coach Al Schmidt

On the race:
Tiffany McWilliams: I guess it was a pretty good race, my body felt good, it's a little cold (laughing). It was a little slippery in some places. You had to watch your footing, but I didn't fall like I did last year, so I'm not going to complain... This is my fourth race of the season. You go into every cross country race trying to push yourself, it was nice having people to push me in a race.

On her training:
TM: I took a week off (after track nationals); then I just started running mileage. We had some workouts during the summer, but they weren't hard workouts. They were just like 4 x 1,500 at a steady pace... Our mileage usually stays at about 35 miles a week; it isn't high mileage.

On her goal for the season:
TM: I can't really sit down and set a goal. I didn't really set a goal last year for track season. Coach set a goal for me... It was 4:14, [then I ran] 4:06 — neither one of us expected that, it just sort of happened. [This season I just want] to run well, I'm just really using cross country as a base for mileage for the track season.

Fast-Women: Did you ever think about winning nationals, or running a 4:06?
TM: No, never, never. I never expected to run a 4:06. I PRed in preliminaries running 4:10 and my fastest time before that was 4:12. I did not expect to run a 4:06; it just happened that day.

FW: Didn't Lena Nilsson take the lead toward the end?
TM: She took the lead with 250 meters to go, with 150 to go I took it back.

Al Schmidt: Everything's going as planned for he, everything's going like we [planned] for the trials. We didn't do a lot of miles, she took quite a bit of time off this summer, she just needed it.

FW: What about all the attention you got after you won? People were wondering if you'd go to Europe and try to run in the World Championships…
TM: I didn't really think about it.
AS: Our plan was never to do that. When she ran 4:06, we hadn't really planned on going beyond [nationals]. In fact, we were going to run the 800 meters at USAs, and then, when she ran the 4:06, it didn't feel hard. We thought maybe... We were less than a second away from the Olympic 'A' Standard, so we wanted to try to get that the next week. It ended up being too many rounds.

If we'd had a week before USA Nationals, it would've been a lot better. In the heat, in the way she went at NCAAs with each race, making people run, and then try to come back and run just as hard with Suzy and Regina… Then we would've had to try to chase the 4:05.80... If we had been able to plan ahead in training, knowing that she was going that close, it would be a lot different.

Once you get to a point where you've got it… Once you run a 4:06, then the next year you kind of plan to extend everything; that's why we're not selling everything out for cross country. We're still trying to just use it as an endurance phase.

It's going to be a lot easier to plan out Athens, hopefully.

FW: Are you planning on doing the [NCAA outdoor track season]?
AS: Yes... Even after indoor nationals (this year) we laid low and just did a lot of 800s. We didn't go to any big meets until we hit Penn Relays. SEC was when we were really training to race, anything before that was just kind of training to train.

FW: Didn't you say she was a VO2 max monster?
AS: An anaerobic monster… She is. I don't really care about tempo running with her, but she can handle lots of lactic acid — I mean lots of it — over a long period of time

Everything's going right on target; she's way ahead of what she was last year at this time, that's good. She just happens to respond to the training pretty well. That's what's important. You find two people who work together really well — I think that's a big thing — we try not to do anything that isn't necessary for the 1,500. She raced with some pretty good girls [today]. Molly Huddle is as good as there is, she could easily win nationals.

(Posted October 14, 2003)