By Jerome Boettcher
As soon as his season ended last year, Steven Flynn immediately began gearing for the next season.
After missing out on advancing in the 1,500-meter run at the 2015 NCAA East Preliminary Championship, Flynn transformed from competitor to spectator. He turned his attention to watching the 5,000 meters, and that's when he first formulated a plan.
“I saw pretty much the same thing in both heats – there were just a group of four or five people who broke away from the field,” Flynn recalled earlier this week. “I turned around with a lap to go and noticed they were way ahead of everyone. I felt like I could put myself in that position where I can be with those guys and qualify.”
A year later, Flynn will get his chance to show he belongs at the top of the pack.
The redshirt junior enters the 2016 NCAA East Preliminary Championship, which begins today in Jacksonville, Fla., as the No. 13 seed in the 5,000-meter run. The top 12 qualify for the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, which run June 8-11 in Eugene, Ore.
But in the 5,000-meter run at the East Preliminary, which will be run at 8:45 p.m. on Saturday, the 48-runner field is broken up into 24-competitor heats. The top five finishers in each heat, in addition to the next two fastest times, advance to nationals. Flynn is confident he can advance on and he believes his experience of coming up short last year will benefit him this time around.
“It is exciting just because I get redemption at last year,” he said. “Last year, I didn't do very well. Last year, my goal was to just get to regionals (East Preliminary). So when I got to regionals I was kind of like, 'What do I do now?' I was happy to be there, just praying to do my best. I feel like that stalled me when I got there.
“But this year I'm trying to be an All-American. That is the goal. That is the dream. So this year I know what to do when I get to regionals and I have a better understanding of what is going to happen when I get there.”
Considering he had run the 5,000 meters just twice before this season, attaining All-American honors (top 16 at nationals) might have appeared too lofty of a goal at the beginning of the year. But after the 2015-16 school year Flynn has enjoyed it wouldn't come as a shock.
The soft-spoken distance runner from Edison, N.J., has quietly put together one of the best years in the Atlantic 10 Conference. He's racked up three individual conference championships, one in each sport – cross country, indoor track (3,000 meters) and outdoor track (5,000 meters). The criminology major also helped the Patriots win a team title, by repeating as A-10 outdoor champs three weeks ago.
Not to mention he set the school record in the 5,000 meters (13:55.26) and ran himself into the top three in the record books in the 3,000 meters (8:17.68).
“He has made really nice progress since he got here,” head coach Andrew Gerard said. “He has continued to make good strides forward. Some of that, where you've seen this breakout, he has been on that same trajectory. Sometimes that is hard to maintain but when you do maintain it you see results that all of a sudden seem like a huge breakout. But in reality they are just a continuation of the trajectory that started back when he first got here.”
Flynn transferred from Temple three years ago. He was drawn to Mason by his connection with then volunteer assistant coach Tony Mihalich, who is now an assistant coach at Iona. Mihlalich had recruited Flynn to Temple when he was a graduate assistant there.
His connection might have been Mihalich but Flynn quickly became interested in how he could develop under Gerard, his distance coach. Gerard's emphasis on molding the training to fit each individual's needs appealed to Flynn.
But he admits there was still a learning curve, especially to the grueling demands of college training, when he arrived at Mason as a sophomore in 2013.
“That was a rough transition time,” he said. “You go from high school when you run 30 miles a week to college where you're trying to run 70. It is way too much of a transition. It is way too hard. So it took me a while to get into the college way of training. Sophomore year, I felt like I was still in that transition phase and then I got hurt.”
Just as he began preparing for indoor track in 2014, he suffered a foot injury that sidelined him for 10 weeks. He began running again in late March, but redshirted his indoor and outdoor track seasons.
But the injury turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Staying put on the stationary bike while his teammates trained and competed definitely served as motivation. But the break was a good thing for someone who had been running nearly nonstop since middle school.
“It was a healthy break for me,” he said. “My body needed that. I needed some time. Running 24/7, it's tough. So I think it was a healthy break. So coming back from that and training all summer I think I was just mentally hungry. I was ready for a good season and to prove myself. I think it was a mix of being healthy and recovered and mentally prepared to run fast.”
He quickly saw the dividends of his hard work in the offseason. He finished third at the A-10 Cross Country Championships –a vast improvement from 38th the year before.
“Huge jump there,” he said. “I think that is when things started to come together.”
The progress continued during the 2015 track season. He took silver in the mile at the A-10 Indoor Championships and helped the distance medley relay team win a championship. He capped it off with a second-place finish in the 1,500-meter run at the A-10 Outdoor Championship.
That was just the tip of the iceberg.
After a strong summer of training, Flynn made a statement to the rest of the league right away in the fall. Running in the five-mile A-10 cross country championship, he broke away from the pack about halfway through the race. By the time he reached the 6K mark he couldn't see anyone in his rearview mirror. He exceeded his own expectations, finishing more than 20 seconds ahead of the runner-up to win his first individual conference title.
His cross country crown springboarded him toward a monster year. But it is not over. He still has one goal in front of him – one that he began thinking of last year.
The 5,000 meters interested Flynn because he realized it played to his strengths as a distance runner. In the 1,500, he must almost go full speed from the start.
“There is no sit and kick,” he said. “I don't have the wheels other NCAA studs do to close in 52 seconds on the last lap.”
In the 5K, however, he believes there are more ways to cut up the race. He can get into a rhythm and a groove for longer to set him up for his final kick. And the hope Saturday is he can put himself in position to reach new heights – and an even bigger stage.
“(This season) has been pretty rewarding,” he said. “I've been reaping the benefits off of all my training I put in in the summer and in the cross season. I'm using that to propel me through the outdoor season… This is what I wanted but the goal is to still be attained. I still have work to do.”
