Lee nears climax of dream season
6/9/2003 12:00:00 AM | Track & Field
“Yeah, sometimes it does” feel like a dream, said the Montana State senior distance runner. She runs in the NCAA Outdoor Championships June 11-14 in Sacramento, a fitting end to the Lander, Wyo., native’s fourth season at MSU.
“Ariana has had a great season,” said Bobcat head coach Dale Kennedy, who coaches MSU’s distance crew. “And she’s come out of nowhere, really. I don’t know how you could script it any better.”
Lee’s spectacular season began last fall, as she qualified for the NCAA Cross Country Championships as an individual. She closed her indoor season by earning Women’s Track Athlete of the Meet honors at the Big Sky Indoor Championships, and then led MSU to the school’s first-ever Big Sky Outdoor Track and Field Championship in mid-May.
Her biggest challenge comes this week, as she pursues All-America honors at the NCAA Championships. Lee will pull double duty in the meet, running in the 5,000 meter trials on Wednesday night, then turning around to run her second-ever 10,000 meter race 24 hours later.
Lee’s first 10,000 meters was a dandy. She and Kennedy pulled a mighty swindle at the Big Sky meet. The two surprised the Big Sky Conference with a surprise entry in the 10,000. Her competition debut at that distance would be one of the meet’s dramatic moments. Lee battled Weber State’s Cynthia Lohsee throughout, and in the last 500 meters pulled away to win a stunning Big Sky title and steal precious points from the Wildcats, points that would prove crucial in MSU’s first outdoor title.
Lee is still walking on air. “It’s so thrilling. Two years ago when we won the indoor (championship) I didn’t feel like I was really part of the team. Now, as a senior and coming off a pretty good indoor season, I felt like I really had some vested interest in this championship, and that it was partly my responsibility to make it happen. It’s so exciting to be able to be able to do that my last outdoor season, especially with the great people that were on the team.”
With team competition over for the season, Lee turns her attention to individual achievements. In a way, that takes her back two weeks to her lonely position at the front of the pack in the league’s 10,000 meter championship. “I had never run the race, I was running against someone who was very good at it, I was running at home, and I was running for the team. Coach told me I had to run my race, make her run your race, don’t try to run her race. I was just focusing on myself.”
The Big Sky’s 10,000 meter champion is excited to revisit that race. “I’m so excited for the 10k because I’ve only run it once,” she said. ”I feel like I have so much room to improve, and in a situation with so much good competition and at sea level I really think I’ll have a chance to improve.”
An enormous challenge awaits Lee. She could run 20,000 meters – 5,000 each in the trials and finals, in addition to the 10,000. She says the cardiovascular base is in place for her to succeed. “I really think that anything that we’ve done to prepare for this weekend has already happened,” she said. “All I can do is go into it with a positive attitude. I just have to take on the challenge. I don’t think there’s anything I can change in my training that would help. I just have to know that I’m prepared. This is the icing on the cake for all the training I’ve done.”
Lee said she will use a familiar game plan this week. “The way I approached it at conference was that I took it one race at a time and got through each race. I think that’s the way I’m going to approach this one, too. It’s going to be kind of the same thing, with a 5 and 10k back-to-back, then I’ll have a day before the final 5k. I think if I make it to the final 5k that I’ll be so excited to make it to the finals that I won’t feel the fatigue quite as much. I’m just going to focus on the 5k first and try to make it to the finals for that and then focus on the 10k.”
An even pace will be important, she said, especially in the 10,000. “I went into (the Big Sky meet) very conservatively,” she said. “I knew that I needed to run even paces, to not go out too fast in the beginning, so what I took out of that race mostly is confidence. I just have to be careful not to go out too fast because there will be so many people ahead of me. Last time I was doing the pace-setting myself.”
The NCAA Outdoor Championships is the college track and field’s pinnacle event. The magnitude of the surroundings – an extremely large field, the presence of the nation’s top athletes, the pressure of pursuing a national championship – inspire awe.
For Lee, having competed successfully in the NCAA Cross Country Championships and the NCAA Midwest Regionals, both meet similar in flavor to the outdoor national meet, will be a boost, she said. “I think definitely it helped. Going to nationals in cross country, that was kind of getting my feet wet. Regionals, you could tell, was heightened tension and atmosphere. You knew this was the day, and if you weren’t in the top five it was over. I think that will help at nationals, knowing that I’ve dealt with the stress at the previous meets. But I think that’s one of the good things of having the 5k first, because if I freak out in the first race I always have another one. But I’m going to try not to do that.”
“Ariana has had a great season,” said Bobcat head coach Dale Kennedy, who coaches MSU’s distance crew. “And she’s come out of nowhere, really. I don’t know how you could script it any better.”
Lee’s spectacular season began last fall, as she qualified for the NCAA Cross Country Championships as an individual. She closed her indoor season by earning Women’s Track Athlete of the Meet honors at the Big Sky Indoor Championships, and then led MSU to the school’s first-ever Big Sky Outdoor Track and Field Championship in mid-May.
Her biggest challenge comes this week, as she pursues All-America honors at the NCAA Championships. Lee will pull double duty in the meet, running in the 5,000 meter trials on Wednesday night, then turning around to run her second-ever 10,000 meter race 24 hours later.
Lee’s first 10,000 meters was a dandy. She and Kennedy pulled a mighty swindle at the Big Sky meet. The two surprised the Big Sky Conference with a surprise entry in the 10,000. Her competition debut at that distance would be one of the meet’s dramatic moments. Lee battled Weber State’s Cynthia Lohsee throughout, and in the last 500 meters pulled away to win a stunning Big Sky title and steal precious points from the Wildcats, points that would prove crucial in MSU’s first outdoor title.
Lee is still walking on air. “It’s so thrilling. Two years ago when we won the indoor (championship) I didn’t feel like I was really part of the team. Now, as a senior and coming off a pretty good indoor season, I felt like I really had some vested interest in this championship, and that it was partly my responsibility to make it happen. It’s so exciting to be able to be able to do that my last outdoor season, especially with the great people that were on the team.”
With team competition over for the season, Lee turns her attention to individual achievements. In a way, that takes her back two weeks to her lonely position at the front of the pack in the league’s 10,000 meter championship. “I had never run the race, I was running against someone who was very good at it, I was running at home, and I was running for the team. Coach told me I had to run my race, make her run your race, don’t try to run her race. I was just focusing on myself.”
The Big Sky’s 10,000 meter champion is excited to revisit that race. “I’m so excited for the 10k because I’ve only run it once,” she said. ”I feel like I have so much room to improve, and in a situation with so much good competition and at sea level I really think I’ll have a chance to improve.”
An enormous challenge awaits Lee. She could run 20,000 meters – 5,000 each in the trials and finals, in addition to the 10,000. She says the cardiovascular base is in place for her to succeed. “I really think that anything that we’ve done to prepare for this weekend has already happened,” she said. “All I can do is go into it with a positive attitude. I just have to take on the challenge. I don’t think there’s anything I can change in my training that would help. I just have to know that I’m prepared. This is the icing on the cake for all the training I’ve done.”
Lee said she will use a familiar game plan this week. “The way I approached it at conference was that I took it one race at a time and got through each race. I think that’s the way I’m going to approach this one, too. It’s going to be kind of the same thing, with a 5 and 10k back-to-back, then I’ll have a day before the final 5k. I think if I make it to the final 5k that I’ll be so excited to make it to the finals that I won’t feel the fatigue quite as much. I’m just going to focus on the 5k first and try to make it to the finals for that and then focus on the 10k.”
An even pace will be important, she said, especially in the 10,000. “I went into (the Big Sky meet) very conservatively,” she said. “I knew that I needed to run even paces, to not go out too fast in the beginning, so what I took out of that race mostly is confidence. I just have to be careful not to go out too fast because there will be so many people ahead of me. Last time I was doing the pace-setting myself.”
The NCAA Outdoor Championships is the college track and field’s pinnacle event. The magnitude of the surroundings – an extremely large field, the presence of the nation’s top athletes, the pressure of pursuing a national championship – inspire awe.
For Lee, having competed successfully in the NCAA Cross Country Championships and the NCAA Midwest Regionals, both meet similar in flavor to the outdoor national meet, will be a boost, she said. “I think definitely it helped. Going to nationals in cross country, that was kind of getting my feet wet. Regionals, you could tell, was heightened tension and atmosphere. You knew this was the day, and if you weren’t in the top five it was over. I think that will help at nationals, knowing that I’ve dealt with the stress at the previous meets. But I think that’s one of the good things of having the 5k first, because if I freak out in the first race I always have another one. But I’m going to try not to do that.”
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