Oregon senior Matt Centrowitz and his fellow Ducks head to Terre Haute, Indiana this Monday for the NCAA Cross Country Championships as one of the contenders for the team title. After winning the West Regional Meet by two points, against a formidable Stanford squad, where Centrowitz took sixth overall (compared to his 73rd-place finish the year before), the Ducks certainly have a gang of momentum on their side heading to “The Big Dance”.

Did you get your long run in today?

Yeah, it was kind of a modified long run for this time of the season. I toned it down a little bit. Believe it or not, I'm actually finishing up a little homework. I don't normally do homework on the weekends, but this week is a little different, getting things set up and ready for next weekend.

Is it difficult? Are you going to be scrambling this week to get everything lined up?

Normally this is a down week where I don't have assignments to do, but next week, I have a couple of assignments due right before Thanksgiving break. I'm actually going to straight to Vegas from NCAAs to kind of celebrate my birthday—my 21st—from earlier this season with my dad and uncle. I won't be coming back, so I have to get all my assignments done that are due next week, this week. This is will be my hard week and next week will be my easy week.

Vegas? Are going hitting up the pawn shops to sell stuff for some cash?

Oh, I'm going to try to make a lot of cash there. That's for sure. I don't about pawn shops, though, maybe slots and craps and stuff. We'll see.

What do you have planned for your trip?

I get there Monday, late at night after NCAAs, so I won't have much to do that night. But, we're staying MGM, so that'll be exciting. My dad mentioned that maybe if it gets a little boring after a couple of days, we might take a trip to see the Grand Canyon. We're not really sure yet, but we'll see and play it by ear.

Let's assume you have something really big from NCAAs to celebrate, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. What are your overall thoughts on how regionals went for the Ducks?

Last year, and this is a little joke with my team right now, I finished like 73^rd. I ran pretty bad last year. This year, I think we had more of a nice plan of sticking with Me, Danny, and AJ together and running really relaxed for five miles and then the last mile, evaluating and seeing how the team is doing. What we needed was for Luke to run up in the front, since he can recover a little more from a 10k than most of us. Luke ran a little more aggressively than Me, Danny, and AJ, but that was the plan and I think we all executed it all pretty well. It was just an all-around fun race. I was really relaxed and it was really nice to have home field advantage and the whole team there, everyone cheering and seeing familiar faces in the crowd.

Two points isn't all that much. You're going to see Stanford again. You're going to see Oklahoma State again. Are you changing the plan from regionals?

Definitely the same way. I think most of the season we haven't done a really good job of running together. That's kind of last year, too. We've kind of gotten away with that. Every single meet this season we've been doing a better job of finding each other and running together. Most of the time when we have a really close one-through-five spread, the team does better. When we're with each other, we're better. We're more relaxed and more comfortable and more confident. I think at nationals, I'm not exactly sure who's going to run with who, but we're definitely going to look for each other and probably run a little bit more aggressively than we did at regionals and obviously give ourselves a shot at winning a national championship.

How do you work on pack running?

That's a good question. I feel like I've been on Flotrack and seen your workout videos and some of the teams on there, their workouts will run not individually, but they'll string out earlier. It's kind of like “every man for himself”, so to speak. In our practice, it's like, even if you're feeling good...you've always got someone to run with. We're always broken up into groups. This season, it's been like me and Luke and AJ and then Danny Mercado will be leading the freshman—Parker, Schrader, and some of the other younger guys. We're always running together, like every single day, even if we're not working out on runs, on tempos on workouts and stuff. Once we get to the race, it's like what we've been practicing. When you don't do it, it's like, “why are we not doing it?” We did it all the time in practice, it should be easy and come naturally for us. When we don't run as well in races, it's because we don't run together, like we're used to. That's the key for us. Practicing it day in and day out.

You practice it all season, but the NCAA Championships is when you go “balls to the wall.” Does that change things when you're in such a big race and feeling so good? Do you not try to hold back to stay with your pack?

I think it being a 10k, and as you said, “a balls to the wall” race, it's such a long race. Being relaxed and being comfortable and running within ourselves are the reasons we've done so well in the past. Even though we're running hard, it's mostly controlled. That's why the coaches usually tell us that the last 2k, or the last mile, of the 10k, is to evaluate and see where we are and that's when you start separating yourself from the pack, so to speak. At nationals, like you said, some of us might be having a better day than the others. That's going to be hard to evaluate then, but that's going to be a “during the moment” decision to make. They're will always be someone on our team that you can be with. Whether it's AJ or it's Danny or it's one of our four-five guys.

How much did you taper going into regionals and how much will you taper going into nationals?

It's been a slow progression. I didn't really taper too much for regionals. I might of downed the mileage maybe five or 10 miles, but I won't do too much tapering going to NCAAs, just doing traveling. And that usually takes a little dent out of the mileage in the week. I'll do shake outs here and there, but just keep the mileage the same...maybe five miles less, but not a whole lot.

Are you taking time off, no matter what, after NCAAs?

Yeah! I talked to Coach Vin about it a couple of days ago. He was counting down with AJ and I about how many more “k” we have left in cross. He was saying, “do a good job at NCAAs and you'll get a little rest.” I've always been a guy who doesn't like to take time off. I've always enjoyed running and I'm such a motivated guy that I always wanted to get back at it. I think a week of running every other day is probably all I need. That'll probably freshening me up. That's all I really need and that's all I'm used to.

You said your team is going to be fighting for a national championship, but what about your individual goal? Do you have a number in mind?

In cross country, like most people, I think place is more important than time, but it's the same course. If I was to improve on my position—my 27th-place finish from last year—and end up running a second faster than I did last year, I can't be too down on myself, but I'm going to obviously try to put myself in the top pack...wherever that might be. Maybe I'll be up in that five to 20 pack and race a little bit more aggressively than I have in the past and hopefully get excited and put our team in position of winning.

There's a lot of talk right now with coaches looking at the “big picture” with their athletes, lining things up for the next few years with big championships. Is there talk between you and Vin about that?

Absolutely. This past fall, I was fortunate enough to drive with Coach Vin to camp, because I left camp for a day or two or something, and we had a two or three-hour drive to Sun River. We were talking about a lot of things from social life to running and we obviously touched on “the big picture” and World Championships this year and the Olympics and Olympic Trials down the road. And that's something he's confident about and making sure I'm on the same page as him about, being confident that I can make those teams. Obviously, like you said, those are down the road, but it's in the back of my head and I definitely like to keep in mind. It's something that I like to think if everything goes right and I stay healthy and everything stays good, that's something that I'd like to be a part of.

How much of what Andrew Wheating did this summer motivates and do you see any reason you can't have the same success?

I remember being at home, just thinking how crazy 3:30 and 1:44 were! It's awesome to have had him on my team and have seen him day-to-day training. It definitely motivates me and it makes my goals more realistic. You see guys like Bernard Lagat or Schumacher's group do stuff and you shake your head and think, “man, I wonder what those guys are doing.” But, I'm fortunate enough to actually see what Wheating is doing. Knowing that what he's doing, and that's similar to what I'm doing, works...it definitely puts my goals into realization that it's possible and something that I'm looking forward to in the future.

In this three-hour car ride with Vin, was there any talk about you moving up in distance or are you focusing on the 1,500 and mile distance?

There was a little talk about that. I think in every runner, if you're a half-miler and up, there's always thinking about it. Not really thinking about IF you're going to do it, but WHEN you're going to do it. Especially with everybody marathoning at a younger age these days. I think this year and through the World Championships, with NCAAs obviously, I'm thinking I'll stay around the 1,500 and keep PRing. Until I reach my full potential, I probably won't move up. It's a possibility to maybe go up to the 5,000 meters. I definitely enjoy running cross country and I liked the two mile a lot in high school, so I don't think there's any reason that I should think about moving up to the 5k.

Your dad was an amazing 5k runner. Where does he weigh in on that? Are he and Coach Vin on the same page?

I don't get two things at all. My dad usually stays out of the loop. When I go home for summer break and winter breaks, he always asks what I'm doing, but he's done a good job staying out. He does continually tell me that I'm a distance runner and distance runners have to run good mileage and always makes sure that I'm on top of things and stuff like that. I think he knows that I'll eventually go to the 5,000—as well as Vin. I think they see eye to eye and he's on the same page with Coach Vin and knows I'll probably stick around the 15 for another year. There really isn't any reason I shouldn't do 5ks this spring. Maybe even some 800s—some under distance as well. I think that'll be good for my developing.

Might I be able to push you on some time goals?

My PR for 5k right now is 13:47. That's obviously a time that I think I was capable of running much faster last spring. I've only had one chance each the past few seasons to run the 5k. I believe with the shape I'm in right now that if I was in track right now, I could be able to run 13:30 or, I think, faster than that. Come spring, I'd like to dip under 65-second pace for 5k. And for the 1,500, obviously the 3:36 that I ran a few years ago would be hard to run faster than in the States, but we could set up a race in Oregon and I'd like to improve by a second or two on that as well. In the 800, that's a weak PR. I've finished 1,500-meter races in my 800-meter PR. Anything under 1:49 would be successful.

What did you say your 800 PR is?

My PR is 1:51, but I've closed a race in 1:50, so technically my PR is what I've closed in at the end of some of my races. (Laughs)

What kind of 400-meter speed do you have?

I think the fastest I've done is 52 at the end of a workout. I really don't know how fast my 400 would be, but I think for an 800, I'm capable of 1:48-1:47.

We haven't been up there for a Track Shack in a few years now. Who do you live with and do you have a “track house”?

We don't have a track house, but I would say we all these apartments that everyone lives in. You have literally half the team here. That's where we lived last year, but this year we live closer to campus. It's with me, my best friend on the team—Chris Kwiatkowski, he and I have lived together since my sophomore year—and we kind of combined housing with AJ Acosta and Kevin McNally, we have four guys living together in a house and it's been working out really well. I'd have to say that that's the track house.

What do you guys do for fun?

On the weekends, in our house, we have a little basketball hoop that we play a lot of horse on in between watching sports games. If you get “skunked”, which is pretty much a shutout, you have to do a naked lap around the apartment. We've had many people do it, but we've tried to have girls come over and do it to play horse, but they always put at least an “h” on the board. (Laughs) We haven't skunked any girls yet. Other than that, we're pretty much normal running guys, just going out for movies on the weekend. We've gone bowling this fall. There's a corn maze that we do around this time, around Halloween. That's always fun. Other than that, there's not really a whole lot going on in Eugene.

Well, I wish you luck skunking girls in horse. Who's the best basketball player on your team?

It's probably a toss up between AJ and Mac. They're the two biggest guys on the team and I know there's an article that came out last year about Mac talking about if he wasn't as good at running, he'd still be playing basketball. I haven't seen him on the court yet, but I'm sure it's one of those two guys. I'm sure if they went somewhere else, though, they'd get rocked. (Laughs)

With how tall Wheating is, can he dunk a basketball?

I've never seen him dunk a basketball. On my college visit here, I played basketball and I have the worst...WORST shooting form and I was just terrible, running up and down the court. Everyone just thought I was hyper. I remember playing with Wheating and I think he played soccer in high school, but if I recall right—and he might give me crap for this—he wasn't very good. (Laughs) He might have been good, but I don't remember him doing anything spectacular. With that 6'6 build, I would hope he could do some windmill or some kind of dunk. Luke is pretty tall, but I know Luke is definitely uncoordinated. We'd have him posting up. And AJ, he's like 170 and he could box someone out and I could be the point guard trying to steal the ball, but that's it. That's our team right there.

You have some really tall runners in the NCAA and it seems like none of them can dunk a basketball. I wonder if Stuart Eagon could have...

I think that's why these guys run. If they weren't uncoordinated, they'd be playing basketball or some sport that uses their height or abilities. That's why they're runners.

I hear you've got a pretty decent football team in Eugene. Are you guys following your team pretty closely?

Yeah! We've gone to a couple games this season and it's really exciting to actually have a football team that's in contention to winning a national title. We always get a lot of crap like, “man, we never thought we'd see the day when our football team is ranked higher than our cross country team.” They've been doing really well and it's really cool, because it's such a fast paced moving football team. A lot of their football players actually ran track for us last spring, so it's cool to see them doing so well.

If you were to guess, whose season is going to end better?

It's going to be a tie. We're going to be getting the same place.

You're originally an East Coast guy, but you spend a lot of your time on the West Coast. Where do you call “home” these days?

That's funny. We have endless, countless debates on East Coast vs. West Coast. It's me and Wheating, and Wheating really gets into these debates, always hyping it up how the East Coast is better than the West Coast. All these Cali guys, AJ, The Mercados, Chris are like, “The West Coast is better, it got you out here!” I call myself an East Coast kid at heart. Chris came and visited me this past summer and he came out for about a month and just absolutely fell in love with it. He knows. He's repping East Coast now. The East Coast is home for sure.

If you could have one meal, prepared by anyone, what would you have and who would make it?

I can't throw one parent in there and leave the other parent out. I'd have my mom make a lasagna for me—that's my favorite of hers. And then, I'd have my dad making me some French toast. In high school, before school every Friday, was “French Toast Friday”. That was always something to look forward to. If I had to go out somewhere, there's a restaurant called “Beppe and Gianni's” in Eugene, and that's the good Italian restaurant. They have the best bruschetta and Italian food. That's my three go-tos when I'm on the East Coast and West Coast.

Can you share a crazy running-related story?

I've been thinking about this and it seems everybody would tell a crazy running-related story, they're getting chased by a bear. I've been fortunate enough where I haven't had a near-death experience. Last spring, I redshirted indoor season and went out to Dempsey for an indoor track meet or something. We were home for the weekend and had a long run to do, so we decided to spice it up and drive an hour to the McKenzie River Trail, which is this awesome trail that a lot of pro athletes go to when they're home in Oregon. We get there and we know we're near. We know it's around this area. We know we're like 200 meters or a quarter-mile away from it, we just don't know where the start of the trail is. We're driving around this sticks, run-down town, going inside asking these randoms, “hey, where is this trail?” And we get this guy. He looks like he just murdered someone. He looks like he has no idea what's going on. We wouldn't have asked him, but we had already opened our mouths. He points us off in this direction. The direction he points us off in is like, “go to the tunnel without a light.” We decided we weren't going that way. He sees us definitely NOT take his advice and we go the opposite way. We find the river trail and park our car off the side of the road. We thought that that guy definitely saw us go the opposite way and was going to go to his car and break into it or something—our stuff was going to get jacked. We're running on the trail and it's a great trail and we're having fun. We go down the trail and all of a sudden, we see this guy's truck, parked right off the side. We're like, “oh, sh**! This guy's around here somewhere!” We had started our long run. You know how you start off a long run easy? No, not us, not this run. We're running like 5:30-pace. We're all nervous, looking around, making sure that every broken branch or twig isn't him. Right at his truck, we see this guy trying to be all secretive...like peeping on us. We thought this guy was definitely going to kill us. We just run by him. On the way back, his truck isn't there. We're like, “phew. He's not here. We're good. We're good. We're good.” We get to our cars and there's his truck, right near Jordan McNamara's car...hold on my phone's dying.

Matt, that's not fair. You can't do that at the climax of your story!

(Laughs) Sorry! All right, we get there and stop like 200 meters from where we were planning on stopping, walking slowly, looking around. We thought he was around there and we were about to die, just praying to God that this isn't going to turn into something we think could happen. This guy pops out of the woods like three seconds later, yelling, “ohhhh, THIS trail! I thought it was the OTHER traaaail!” We were like, “oh, no, no. It's fine.” We thought he was offended that we didn't listen to him. He starts pointing left and right and God knows where as we're walking past him. He goes back to his truck and opens up his door, digging into his car. No stretching involved after this long run. We get in the car as quickly as possible. Of course Jordan's fidgeting with the car and can't turn on the car. We thought the guy took out our engine. We're like, “get out of here, get out of here!” This guy's yapping outside the car. We were boogying out of here, but we think he pulled out a gun as we're driving away. It felt like the closest to near-death experience I've ever had.

You'll never know.

No, I know. I eat my carrots, I have good vision. I saw this guy pull out his nine millimeter or something like that. For a couple months later, we were always joking around, saying, “where we running today? Oh, the OTHER traaaail!” (Laughs)

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