At the UF Indoor Meet on February 9, we caught up with some of Florida's top alumni from the last few years. Read up on what they've been up to and their plans for the spring track seasons.
flrunners: How did the race progress and how did you feel?
Presnick: "Well it was a small field, and I just felt like I had to take it out because the first
400 meters no one was going, so I was trying to hit 70 seconds, or 35 second per lap on the 200 track..
and I was going for time, but kinda lost composure in the middle of the race, but was able to recover and win."
flrunners: What are your goals for the rest of indoor?
Presnick: "Well this is my only race, I'm getting ready for SECs in three weeks.. I'll be running the 5k there
and look to score as many points for the team as I can. Really we're gearing more for Outdoor, 5K and 10K."
flrunners: Do you like indoor or outdoor best?
Presnick: "Everyone emphasizes outdoor more pretty much accross the board, but indoor is a lot of fun, and it's good
to get racing for the heck of it."
flrunners: Regarding last year vs. this year under new Coach Jeff Pigg from Illinois State, has there been a big difference?
Presnick: "Big difference--better attitude we're constantly getting bigger base, which we haven't done in the
past and kinda training through meets in the beginning of the season. And hoping to up the level, take it
up a notch, and get better overall in the distance program, individually, and overall."
flrunners: Today was a new best time for you. Did you feel good about it?
"It felt pretty good..I didn't do great, just kinda got stuck in the pace and had a little kick in the end..that's about it."
flrunners: What are your goals for indoors?
Zieminski: "I just want to go provisional for the mile, the DMR, and then the 3K hopefully."
flrunners: What is the provisional standard for the mile?
Zieminski: "4:05.70... so I'm pretty close to that. But I'm only a second or two off the provisional for the 3K now."
flrunners: Are you really thinking about indoors now or are you looking more toward outdoors?
Zieminski: "I'm focused on indoors now."
flrunners: Which season do you like better?
Zieminski: "I like outdoor better because I run the steeple outdoors and that's a pretty fun event for me... I enjoy that a lot."
flrunners: You were a great runner in high school, but you've made such huge strides and really taken your running to another level since coming to Florida, what has been the biggest difference?
Zieminski: "Just a different training approach, compared to what I was doing in high school--I used to do a lot of speed work.
Here we do a lot more mileage and fewer speed workouts."
flrunners: What kind of mileage were you doing in high school?
Zieminski: "I was only probably doing 30-40 miles per week (in high school), compared to now I'm doing 70-75."
flrunners: Are you going to stay at that kind of mileage all season or are you going to cut back on that?
Zieminski: "I'm thinking about staying at 70 pretty much the whole season."
flrunners: You are aiming at that provisonal standard for indoors, but what about outdoors?
Zieminski: "There are no qualifying times this year, so four people make it from our region...so hopefully if I can do well
at regionals, I'll be going to nationals."
flrunners: Were you satisfied with your performance today?
Swope: "I've only been training since Christmas time...I'm pretty dissappointed that I didn't (break 8:30)"
flrunners: What are you looking to do this spring?
Swope: "In outdoors I want to go 14:10, which would be going though at about this same pace for 5K."
flrunners: What have you run so far?
Swope: "I ran a 15:05 at Kentucky in January...I just don't have it right now, don't have the legs under me yet."
flrunners: What kind of training are you doing to prepare for it?
Swope: "Right now I'm at 45-40 miles a week, and I want to move up to about 75 in the next four or five weeks.
And hopefully hold that all the way through outdoors, I didn't want to bump it up too quickly, because
I want to be able to run all the way through indoor and outdoor without any injuries.
I'm looking to increase my mileage about 5 miles per week until I hit about 75 or 80...try to hit that
at he beginning of March or mid-March and then I want to hold that until early May. I'm really just
setting myself up for May 31, which is our outdoor regional meet."
flrunners: How is the team doing?
Swope: "The teams doing very well, we have some pretty awesome recruits... no one has signed on the mens
side yet except for a Junior College kid, who is an international kid, and he's run.. like 8 or below for the 3K,
and I think he won the junior college championships."
flrunners: So are you thinking you have a shot to qualify for nationals?
"You have to qualify through regionals now, kinda like high school... that would be awesome if I could go
to nationals, and obviouslly that's one of my goals... I'm just going to see if I can hit 14:10 or hopefully
below and if that puts me in a position to qualify for nationals then that would be great, but we have a
one of the toughest--or at least a pretty tough region."
flrunners: Mike, not to doubt you at all, but wouldn't 14:10 be at least a 30 second PR for you?
Swope: "Yeah--It would be about a 43 second PR from last year, but I haven't had what I would call a good track
season since my junior year of high school, because I redshirted indoors and outdoors last year--so
I'm a redshirt freshman this year. And then my senior year I was injured...so I haven't really had a
track season where I was able to train all the way through since my junior year in high school."