Athlete of the Week - Levi Grandt

Levi Grandt is the Athlete of the Week for June 23rd-29th. Levi, a recent graduate of Doddridge County High School, competed at the Nike Outdoor Nationals and finished 8th overall while winning his heat in 15:11.10. Mr. Grandt is off to the University of Richmond next year to continue his career with the Spiders, under Coach Steve Taylor.

Athlete of the Week - Keri Bland

Keri Bland is the Athlete of the Week for June 16th-22nd. Keri competed in the 1500m at NCAAs this weekend and finished 10th in 4:18.18. Following her All-American in Cross Country and Indoor Track, she completes a clean sweep for the year in earning All-American status in Outdoor Track as well. Also deserving mention is that her teammate Clara Grandt ran the 10000m two days before and finished 11th in 34:41.04, missing All-American by one place. (In the photo above, Keri is in the middle of the pack, next to the eventual winner and new NCAA record holder, Hannah England.)

Athlete of the Week - Keri Bland

Keri Bland is the Athlete of the Week for June 9-15th. Keri is running in the 1500m at NCAA Outdoors this weekend in lovely Des Moines, Iowa. Her SB (and PB) is 4:17.02, which ranks her as the 12th fastest qualifier at NCAAs. Hailing from North Marion High School, Keri is a West Virginia native who has improved (usually drastically) every year while at WVU. The highlight of her season, so far, was her dominating victory over the ECAC field in the video above. She makes the trip with Clara Grandt, last week's 'AotW', who is running the 10,000m. Best of luck to Clara and Keri, do the state proud.

Training for the Big Show

I know a lot of people wonder, "what kind of training do runners like Keri Bland and Clara Grandt do leading up the NCAA Nationals?". Well, just check out the video below to see the intensity these two put into their training.



Except for the slow motion, frolicking through the water, homoerotic hug at the end, that's some pretty hard core stuff. Of course it goes without saying that not everyone follows the same formula when it comes to getting in peak physical condition. Down in Huntington, Jason Pyles likes to follow a different regimine that looks something like this:


As you can see Jason's training has it's own, unique......flair. But I'm sure he's popular with the ladies thanks to all his Carl Lewis-like outfits.

(note: am I mistaken or is that the great Sean Cleary making a cameo appearance in the first video - at the 2:27 minute mark - getting pulled into the water)

Athlete of the Week - Clara Grandt

Clara Grandt shimmy-schuffled her way to a very impressive finish this past weekend at the D1 - Regional Meet in Talahassee, Florida. She battled it out with the lead pack of runners in the Women's 5K and held on for 8th place with a time of 16:35.83. Now she didn't get the auto-qualifier spot, but her 16:28.57 from Stanford makes her an at-large qualifier and puts her name on the D1 NCAA Nationals 5K list. But it doesn't matter. She's not even going to run it. Clara has already qualified for the 10K with her nasty time of 34:15.07 (which won her an ECAC title and was less than a second off the WVU school record) and she is runnining that instead. Most people spend their whole running careers trying to run fast enough to hit the standard for just one event at Nationals. Clara has done it for two events, in just one season. So off she goes to Iowa (with teammate Keri Bland) to take down that stubborn school record and earn All-American status by running against the Nation's elite. Best of luck to Clara (and Keri) this weekend!

The Big Show

The early selection list is out for the NCAA DI Championships (June 11th-14th, Des Moines, IA) and Keri Bland (WVU) is in at 12th in the 1500m and Clara Grandt (WVU) is in at 21st in the 10000m. Both are West Virginia natives and are coached by Sean Cleary. The full women's list is here. Ms. Bland's SB in the 1500m is 4:17.02 and Ms. Grandt's SB for the 10,000m is 34:15.70.

To put in perspective how far these two have come, in their respective senior years in high school, Ms. Bland's best 800m time was 2:18 and Ms. Grandt's top 3200m time was 11:54. Keri's 4:17 1500m is the same pace as a 2:17 800m... she just keeps running an extra 700m. Clara's 34:15 10,000m is the same pace as a 10:57 3200... she just runs 15 and a half laps further.

Best of luck to these girls later this month in Iowa.