Indiana Hoosier sophomore De'Sean Turner recently took second in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the Big Ten Championships, crossing the line in 8 minutes, 56.77 seconds. Heading towards regionals Turner's big goal is to qualify for the NCAA Championships and break 8:45.

Is this season playing out the way you want it to play out?

There are a couple of other events that I wish I had run better in. Not that I didn't have the opportunity, I just would have wanted to have prepared better. The steeple is one that's been working out pretty well for me. The Big Ten meet went pretty well as far as that's concerned. I had a couple of other races that were around similar times as the steeple at Big Tens, but were a couple of seconds slower. One was when it was 80 degrees outside and the other was 45 degrees and rainy. I think I could run a better time, but it was just depended on what race I was in and who else was in the race, the conditions and everything else. The race went out a little bit slower than I expected. Towards the end it picked up and it felt like a harder race than the other two because of the other people that were in it. As far as the season...everything is going pretty well right now.

But you haven't seen anything close to optimum conditions yet for a steeple?

Not necessarily. Coach Helmer told us that we're not going to go out West two or three times and try to run fast. He more worked on what we're doing on our own. I feel like a lot of the fast steeple times were run out west and I'm not too concerned with it...when people are running like 8:43 at the Stanford meet. I just know when the big race comes...I'll be able to put something big out there.

What are your goals for regionals?

To get to nationals. That's my main goal. If the race doesn't go well as far as time, that's not a big deal. If it does, then I'll try to go under 8:45 and make it to USAs. Anything under 8:50, I'd probably be pretty happy with.

The team result at Big Ten's wasn't exactly what you were looking for, what do you think about the way your team performed there?

Obviously we weren't too happy about that. We lost a few sprinters to injury. We had a false start. There were some points we could have had in sprints. Our All-American pole vaulter is redshirting and there were just a lot of places where we could have scored more points but didn't. We did have a lot of people redshirt that could have scored. We know that it's there. Some things just didn't click and I know we're better than that. I see it every day in practice. Not just the distance team, I see if from everybody.

Are you a steepler from now on?

I won't be a steepler, I'll be a guy that can steeple. That's how Coach Helmer and I like to put it. There are some guys on our team that we like to call “1,500 guys” and they can run a 5K. And there are 5K guys that can run down and run a 15. You don't want to categorize one person into one event. During indoors, I ran the provisional in the 800, then I ran a 5K at Big Tens. So, I have pretty decent range. The steeple is something that I've been focused on pretty well.

No need to limit yourself.

No, not at all. I have goals from everything from the 800 to the 5K.

What about higher than that? Can you compete in the 10?

I was a pretty good distance guy in high school. I've done my training and prepared for distance races and all that, so I think that I can. There are guys on our team that are more “10K guys”. So, I don't know if I'd really ever get a legitimate shot at the 10K. I would love to do it, but there are other guys where that's more their thing.

How was the transition from high school to college for you?

Yeah. It's worked out. The work load is more than I'm used to obviously. I wasn't a really high-mileage runner in high school and I think that was a good thing. Some guys don't like recruiting high-mileage guys because they aren't sure how much better they'll get. I still think I have a lot of room to improve. I love my mileage a lot. I had a lot of success in high school and I'm still trying to figure some things out. The transition hasn't been easy, but I've learned a lot.

You said that you're tinkering with things, but where's your comfort zone with mileage and training right now?

I love doing repeats on the track. I've done lots of repeats which has helped me work out a lot this year. 200s and 400s have been my forte' since high school. I was always to handle those pretty well and put a big one out there...maybe to simulate the end of the race. Mileage wise, the highest I ever got in high school was running 67 one week. Here, I was over 80 for a few months. That's where I am right now. The 80-85 range. That's where I expect to be pretty much through the summer, maybe until the beginning of cross next year. I'm not really sure yet.

Does any one workout stand out to you as the hardest you've ever done?

Well, we adopted a workout from Michigan that I think Webb used to do. I'm not exactly sure of what it consisted of, but it was probably the hardest workout I've ever done. I think it was a 3K on the road, you come back and run a mile, then a 3K on the road, then you come back and run a 12, then maybe another 3K and an eight. I'm not exactly sure, but it was pretty rough.

When you get free time, how do you spend it?

Lately I've been playing a lot of video games. I play a lot of sports games. A lot of the guys I live with play a lot of Halo, but I'm not too good at that, so I don't partake in that. They play a little bit too much. I like the sports games. We have a lot of bonfires and stuff like that too.

You're originally from Indianapolis, where basketball is a huge deal. Can you give me an NBA Finals prediction?

I'd love to see Kobe versus Lebron like everyone else. The Cavs are good, but I think the Magic could sneak in there and I also think the Nuggets could sneak in there. I'm not really sure, but I'd like to see Kobe versus Lebron and if that happens, I'd like to see Lebron get his first championship. Everyone thinks Kobe is so much better because he has three rings. I'd like to see Lebron get his first one.

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

I'd probably have my mom's beef and noodles. It's not like a four-course meal or anything like that. She cooks up a big thing of beef and mixes it with noodles and it's really good. She makes me some whenever I come home. It's a big deal. It's my favorite meal. I'd probably have that.

Can you give me a crazy running-related story?

There's this one guy on our team. I'll leave him unknown—to save his face—but he likes to disrobe, I guess for the fun of it. One time we were running on our cross course and it's open to the public and there's usually people running on it. He was doing it he saw some people on the course and he was just...completely naked. He just waved at them and that was pretty hilarious.