Sunni Olding followed up her 10th-place showing at last year's Foot Locker Cross Country Championships with a win in the Adidas Outdoor two-mile. This cross country season, she recorded wins at the Midwest Meet of Champions, the Ohio State Meet, and the Mid East Championships. After a third-place finish at the Foot Locker Midwest Regional, Olding is feeling good and ready to run Saturday.

Sunni Olding (Photo: Alison Wade/New York Road Runners)

Ricky Quintana: How are you feeling?
Sunni Olding: I'm feeling pretty good. It's great weather and it's making me excited about tomorrow, definitely. I'm feeling loose. I feel good.

RQ: How did the Midwest Regional race go for you?
SO: It was a good race. I was leading for a lot of the race. Katelyn (Kaltenbach) had a nice kick at the end, and I didn't quite respond to it. I'm hoping to have a little more left this week, just get myself into position and see what I can do.

RQ: Did you think that the Midwest Regional was a good or bad race for you?
SO: It wasn't a bad race. My main goal going in was just to qualify. I wasn't really focused on winning, I think that played somewhat into why I didn't have much left at the end... It's a lot easier when you are prepared to go for the win. I was happy just to qualify and move on.

RQ: You've run this course and raced on it before. What do you think about it the second time around?
SO: It's definitely an advantage to have run here before. I know what to expect. Last year, I was just so happy to be here and so excited, so I kind of got caught up in it a little bit. This year, I'm having a lot of fun. It's my senior year and I want to enjoy it, but come race morning, I'm going to be focused and ready to race.

RQ: Who are the people you are going to be looking for in this race?
SO: It's hard to tell at a national race. [Zoe Nelson is] probably the favorite coming back and all the other regional winners looked really strong. I'm just going to try and position myself with the top girls and just see how the race unfolds.

RQ: What is your strategy going to be for this course?
SO: Generally, in races like this, I try to get out in the lead pack. All season, I go out fairly hard, so I can handle a pretty fast opening mile. Other than that, I just run how I feel. If I'm ready to go, I go. I don't have a set strategy, just because anything can happen and I want to be prepared to cover anything.

RQ: What are going to be the key points in this race?
SO: I'm not really sure. I know Zoe likes hills, so she's probably going to take it up hills. Katelyn has great kick. I don't know a lot about the other girls, to tell you the truth, because I don't race a whole lot of national competition during the season. So I just kind of go for what feels right for me and just go from there.

RQ: What kind of time do you think will win this race?
SO: I think it's going to be a little faster than last year. I'd say, I feel like we are going to get out pretty quick. Gosh, I don't know. I think it's going to take quicker than a 17:30 this year.

RQ: What kind of time would you expect from yourself on a perfect day?
SO: Heck, I don't like to put limits [on myself], I guess. I think I could definitely run 17:30s, but it's a challenging course, so it's hard to tell. Where I'm from, we have a lot of fast and flat ones so it's kind of hard to tell. We'll see.

RQ: Have you been preparing yourself knowing that you'll have to run hills here?
SO: Yeah, I've been getting a little hill work at the end of the season. I kept it up a little longer, through my state meet and stuff, and just have been incorporating it into to my runs... [In] the last couple of weeks, I've been working on getting a little sharper so I have a little better kick at the end.

RQ: Do you feel sharp now?
SO: Yeah. I was battling a little bit of an injury. Nothing major, but after the Mid East senior meet, I kind of was banged up because it was muddy and stuff. I didn't have a lot of speed. I'm just starting to feel bouncy and ready to move again. I felt good today, so I should be ready to go.