“EIGHT ONE-HUNDREDTHS of a second!”
An enthusiastic conversation with UNC coach Chris Miltenberg about the jaw-dropping, record-smashing 7:30.15/7:30.23 1-2 finish by Tar Heels Ethan Strand and Parker Wolfe over 3K at the Colyear-Danville Invite in early December is wrapping up. But first, he wants to make sure you know what’s the real story as far as he’s concerned.
“Even just the amount of press Ethan has gotten for breaking that record, I’m like, to me, the coolest part of the story is 8/100ths of a second,” he continues, enthralled that his seniors were separated by just that tiny fraction in their battle to the finish. “It’s the power of them doing it together. Them going at each other over the last lap, like pure joy, it’s as fun as it gets.”
Both smashed the previous Collegiate Record of 7:36.42 by more than 6 seconds, moving to Nos. 4 and 6 all-time U.S. But the irony is that chasing fast marks is precisely what the Carolina program has not typically done under Miltenberg.
“We used to joke every Monday in our meetings about never going to BU, that everybody goes there and just wants to chase times,” he confessed, “and that we were going beat all the BU people later in season when we get to the championships. That was a deep thing in our program.”
Obviously, there’s been a bit of a change of heart, but even then, “We never, ever talked about running the time. We said let’s go compete with an open mind, see what we can do and have some fun with it. Let’s beat everybody else.”
Meanwhile, with a month having passed and their current holiday break from school to soak it all in, Wolfe and Strand have absorbed the experience as a confidence builder and a stepping-stone.
“We don’t get out and time trial that often, so you only get a few chances to see what you’re really capable of, time-wise,” said Strand. “I hadn’t necessarily seen that over the last two years… but now I actually get to see it on paper for once. It gives me some confidence to go out and know that, yeah, it’s a World Champs year and I can compete with the best in the U.S. and hopefully go compete with the best in the world.”
“It’s been really cool,” Wolfe confirmed. “With this year being a World Champs…
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