XU Track Player Profile:

The Xavier Newswire sat down with sophomore runner Tom Ohlman.

• Xavier Newswire: How'd you get into running?
• Tom Ohlman: In sixth grade, one of my good friends was running track and wanted me to do track with him. I started out doing hurdles and quickly found that I was really bad at that because I got last in every race. The following fall he was also running cross country. In track he'd always say, "Do distance with me!" and I'd say, "I can't run a mile! That's so far!" In the fall he wanted me to come out and do cross country, so I started doing that, and I've been doing it ever since, really.
• XN: How do you like the Steeplechase?
• TO: It's interesting. I guess that sixth-grade hurdle background is coming in use, but it's a crazy race. It's different than anything I've ever done before, so it's a lot of fun. It's just something different than the usual "however-many-laps" around the track and stuff. It's a lot of fun but it's definitely a tough race.
• XN: So did you just start doing that in college?
• TO: Yeah, last year our assistant coach worked with the steeplechasers and she was sort of having all the freshman try out, so I was like, "Oh, that'd be fun to try something new," and so I got out there and did it. The first time I ran pretty well, so we decided to keep going with it. I think we're going to do it this year, too.
• XN: What's your favorite race to run?
• TO: In track I'm sort of doing everything: outdoor 1500, steeplechase, 5k, and possibly 10k. I don't know. I guess coming out of high school I was doing the two mile every meet because that's all I needed to run. Now every meet, it's pretty much something different that I'm running. One question I get a lot is whether I like cross country or track more. I guess, as of now, I like track more just because it just switches it up a lot and it's more interesting than it was in high school. I still love cross country. It's a lot of fun and everything, but track's just been a new experience.
• XN: Tell me a little about your family.
• TO: I've got an older sister. She just graduated last year from the University of Evansville and actually just moved down to Cincinnati to get a job here. She lives two miles from campus, so that's pretty cool.
• XN: What do you do before a meet to prepare?
• TO: I like to be not too in the zone, but relaxed, focused and know my race plan.I sort of run through the race in my head and know what I need to do, like when I'm going to need to make a move or anything. A lot of people don't really like it but before races I'm joking around, trying to stay loose and trying to have fun.
• XN: What are your hobbies outside of running?
• TO: Outside of running, I like playing videogames with my roommates. We play lots of X-Box, Madden — I've got to support my Colts. We do just about anything athletic really — football, basketball, sometimes soccer in the off-season. I got to play some snow football over break — can't do that here…But I like to hang out, watch movies, anything really.