Written by Sam Hurst for MileSplit SD and Inside Dakota Sports
With the temperature dropping, and the wind howling, South Dakota high school cross-country champion Tony Smoragiewicz quietly repeated as the Nike Heartland Regional champion Sunday afternoon at the Yankton Trails course in Sioux Falls that he describes as his favorite cross country venue in the country. His time of 15:19 was seven seconds faster than North Dakota prep champion Jake Leingang of Bismarck, and secured Smoragiewicz a place in the Nike X High School National championship in Portland next month, where he will run against the best high school runners for the second time in two years. Last year’s 9th place finish in the Nike X Nationals was Tony’s coming out party as one of the country’s elite high school runners.
Watching Tony run is like staring into fire, or unscrewing the back of a Rolex watch and becoming mesmerized by the precision of the gears. In two years, I have watched him run ten times. I like to hug a tree near a curve in the course, where fans and parents rarely stand, and get close enough to touch him as he runs past. I have never seen stress wrinkled across his forehead, impatience in his rhythmic gait, doubt, or fear in the creases of his smile. Tony runs, and wins, like a man at peace with himself.
But for the last two years, while he has been traveling the world, dazzling teammates and competitors, rising through the national ranks, Tony has also been piecing together a puzzle of uncommon difficulty. He has been trying to decide where to go to college, and how to make all the pieces of his life fit together. Last Friday, he made his decision.
The first piece of the puzzle was academics. Tony has a GPA above 4.0, and he’s carrying four Advanced Placement classes (physics, calculus, government and English). He wanted a university with a top-notch mechanical engineering program. After being heavily recruited by a dozen schools, he narrowed his final four to Minnesota, Princeton, Stanford and Michigan. It’s amazing how a 4.0 GPA makes life easy for a college coach. With those four choices, let’s just say that academics took care of themselves.
Anyone who has followed Tony for the last few years knows that his path to glory has been unconventional. To South Dakota high school running fans, he is a cross-country and track champion, but his passion has always been the three-headed monster of endurance—the triathlon. Last September, he won the bronze medal at the Junior World Triathlon Championship in Beijing, China.
In selecting a college, Tony looked for a coach who would support his passion. Because triathlon is not an NCAA sanctioned event, there are no scholarships, and let’s face it, why would a coach give precious scholarship money to a runner who wants to spend time swimming and bicycling? Track and swimming coaches look upon triathletes as hot potatoes. Tony understood that running will pay his way through college, but he wanted a coach who would also support a training regime that included swimming and bicycling. He found that coach in Alex Gibby, who built an international reputation at William and Mary College in Virginia, and then moved to the top cross-country spot at the University of Michigan last year.
So last Friday afternoon, Tony Smoragiewicz called Coach Gibby and made a verbal commitment to wear the maze and blue of Michigan for the next four years.
“Coach Gibby may well be the best coach in the country because of the way he interacts with his athletes and his training philosophies in terms of individualization of workouts and periodization.” Tony told me. “He’s made a great impact at Michigan in such a short time and it’s something I want to be a part of. Even though my long term goals are focused toward representing the United States on an Olympic Team in triathlon, I know the only way to reach my potential is to improve my running by competing at a Division One school in cross country and track and field over the next four years. I’ll also receive help from the coaches of the swimming program at Michigan, which is currently the best swim team in the nation. I can’t wait to run for Coach Gibby and be part of a running program that’s on the rise of being one of the best in the country.”
Tony cannot sign a formal letter of commitment until February, but judging by the grin on his face at lunch last Friday, he has little doubt that his decision is final and unshakable.
“Where do you think you will fit in on the Michigan cross-country team?” I asked him. “You’re world class at the high school level, but those guys are four years older, and four years bigger and more experienced.”
“I definitely won’t be at the top of the team,” he explained. “But I should be able to compete against the top seven.”
With the summer triathlon season behind him for another seven months, and his college decision squared away, there is nothing left for Tony to do but run…(and, of course, pass four AP exams).
I asked him to reflect on the cross-country season that just finished, and he shook his head: “I was more tired than I thought after I got back from Beijing.” He told me. “I took two weeks off, but I never really got going in cross country. Now I’m rested, and I’m training again.”
In two weeks he will run in the Footlocker cross country qualifying regional in Kinosha, Wis., followed the next week by the Nike X Nationals in Portland, and then followed one week later by the national Footlocker Cross Country championships in San Diego. He will come back to school after each event, and fly out the next weekend. If he thought he was tired after Beijing, his next month of travel is just as grueling.
Next spring, he will return to the Arcadia Invitational Track Meet, in Southern California, where last April he ran his first sub-9 minute 3,200.
“At the end of the Nike and Footlocker races, I will have spent 96 days on the road in 2011. It’s hard on the body, and hard on my ability to keep up a consistent training schedule.”
Tony’s pace will be just as aggressive for 2012. But, instead of using world-class events to discover his potential, and find his place among the elite runners, starting now…he will be running to win. When he is back home, he has set some sparkling goals for the 2012 track season. “I’d like to run the 3200 under 8:45. My best time in the 1600 (mile) is 4:16. I’d like to lower it to 4:05 this year.”
“4:05 is so close to 4:00.” I kid him. “Why not set a goal of running a four-minute mile?”
He looked at me incredulously. “Five seconds is a lot! Four minutes is really fast.” Then he broke out laughing.
Tony’ best time in the 1600 is 4:16.
At least he won’t have to worry about where he’s going to college.
Visit Inside Dakota Sports for additional articles featuring Tony Smoragiewicz and written by Sam Hurst
