Schwab running to become to become a first for his school

By Glen Miller/The Mustang News

If the 2004 cross country season were a comic book story, then Mustang sophomore Kevin Schwab could easily have been called the “Man of Steel” — shattering the course record in just about every race he ran.

But there’s a different superhero that Schwab, the Class 5A state champion, likens himself to.

“I would say I’m Flash,” Schwab said. “I want to run fast.”

Fast is what Schwab has been running, ending the cross country season with an average time of 15:68 for the 5-kilometer distance. But that mark doesn’t tell the whole story, considering his first three races were all timed at over 16 minutes as he battled through a cold.

He broke into the 15-minute range with a course-record time of 15:31 at the Edmond Dog Pack Meet and never looked back, running seven more races — all under 16 minutes.

A sharp comparison to his freshman season in which he ran only four races under 16 minutes and had an average time of 15:89.

Schwab,   who   garnered   state attention as a road racer by winning the Redbud Classic in April, proved to be a serious cross-country contender when he tied the course record at the famed Oklahoma State University Jamboree.

He won that race with a 15:35, one of only four in a 197-runner field to break 16 minutes. Schwab won by 16 seconds over a Kansas runner and was 18 seconds quicker than the nearest Oklahoma competitor.

“Kevin is one of those phenomenon that doesn’t come around very often,” Mustang head coach Mike McGarry said.

“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and I feel very lucky to have coached him for two years. I’ve seen him grow up and get faster. You could coach for 25 years and never get someone as good as him.”

However, Schwab was not finished after OSU.

A week later he shattered the Oral Roberts University course record by over 10       seconds with a 15:17 clocking. Schwab followed that up by speeding past the course record at the Chile Pepper Cross Country Festival in Arkansas. His time of 14:44 was 17 seconds better than the nearest racer.

It was a mark which stood as the nation’s fastest time this season until a few weeks ago when Plano (Texas) High School’s Scott MacPherson ran a 14:34 to win the Class 5A title in the Lone Star State.

And like a classic comic book, a new battle has emerged.

Having rolled over his competition, including a new course record at the recent Oklahoma-Arkansas All-Star Meet, Schwab turns his attention toward a possible meeting with MacPherson this weekend in the 26th Annual Foot Locker South Regional Cross Country Championships.

The race will be held at McApline Creek Park in Charlotte, N.C. Both runners are chasing the course record of 14:43 (Alan Webb, 2000) and one of the eight tickets from the region to the Foot Locker National Cross Country Championships in San Diego’s Balboa Park (Morley Field).

“Someone will break that record this weekend,” Schwab said. “On that course I’ll get close to breaking that record.”

Schwab ran the same course last season in the FLNCCC regional meet with then teammate Aaron Snyder. Schwab finished in 129th place, while Snyder wound up 12th.

“It was a low point but it was good experience,” Schwab said. “I know now that I need to take out fast.”

Mustang has never had a runner qualify for the Footlocker National meet, which is something Schwab has set his sights on correcting.

“This is going to be the biggest race of my life. I want that top eight pretty bad, so this is a big deal,” Schwab said. “My goal for this race is the top eight. I don’t care about time, I just want to get into that top eight.”

Schwab said he and MacPherson, as well as the two top returning runners from the regional meet a year ago should provide a quick pace.

“Getting pushed can help me 10 to 15 seconds,” Schwab said. “But then they have not been pushed all year long either. I’ll try and keep up with them.”

So how fast can Schwab run?

“I don’t know how fast I can run yet because I haven’t had any competition.” Schwab said. “We’ll have to wait and see.”

McGarry said he knows Schwab can make the national championships, even though he is running in the toughest region in the United States.

“Looking at the times, the kid from Texas is about 40 seconds ahead of everyone else he’s been running against. He’s about 15 seconds ahead of Kevin, so that would put Kevin ahead of all the rest of the Texas runners – and Texas usually makes up most of the regional placers,” McGarry said.

McGarry said he’s been helping Schwab with his mental preparation, which is one of the main reasons the sophomore has been able to continually post lower times. A few other training tricks, such as starting Schwab out 20 to 30 seconds later than the rest of the team and then making him chase them down, has kept workouts challenging.

“You can do the same types of things,” McGarry said on how to coach a standout runners like Schwab. “But you can push him a little more than others. But you still have to remember that he’s only a sophomore boy and you can go overboard with training and that would make him mentally flat and cause injuries.”

But then knowing the “overboard” point with Schwab is not an easy task.

He runs almost every day, upward of 30-35 miles per week. He competes in road races nearly every weekend when there is not a school event. Schwab owns the 5K state record in road racing for 10, 13, 14 and 15-year-olds. He also set the state mark in 8 and 10K road races for 14-year-olds.

Schwab has won 229 of the 230 road races he’s competed in during his career. The lone setback was in a Tulsa race back in elementary school.

“That experience helps him continue to get better,” McGarry said. “Kevin likes to run. Where most people might dread getting up and running, Kevin jumps up brushes his teeth and will go out and run five to eight miles and it only takes him an hour.”

Schwab said running daily allows him to develop the mental toughness his coach is seeking.

“There is always that point in the race when you want to give up and stop and I’ve been to that point plenty of times. You just have to get past it, even when it hurts. I never stop,” Schwab said.

And never giving up is what it will take for Schwab to reach his other career goal – the 2008 Olympic Games.

“I don’t think that’s to lofty of a goal. I look to the other Olympians from Mustang for inspiration and they have shown me a road map on how to get there. Every time I run I think about how they’ve gotten there,” Schwab said.