The Road to Athens
4/23/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Track & Field
THE ROAD TO ATHENS
Brannen, Willis Aim to Make Olympic Dreams a Reality
By Leah Howard, U-M Athletic Media Relations Intern
Come late August when Ann Arbor begins to swell with people and thousands of students are preparing for the upcoming school year, a pair of Michigan runners plan to be halfway around the world representing their countries in the Olympic Games.
While the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, is the ultimate goal, junior Nate Brannen and sophomore Nick Willis start their quest in the flat terrain of Ann Arbor. With a demanding college system that schedules races nearly every weekend, it would not be feasible for a runner to maintain a high level of training over a long period of time. So, with August just around the bend, Brannen and Willis are redshirting the outdoor track season to return to the fundamentals.
"We're doing base training right now just to get the mileage back up," said Brannen. "We want to build a good base to maintain everything through the summer when we start getting back into racing. When we start going a little faster and doing more speed workouts, Willis and I will go our separate ways to work on our specific events."
Brannen has his sights set on qualifying for the 800-meter run; it's the event that the Wolverine junior has mastered at the collegiate level, winning back-to-back NCAA indoor titles. To qualify for the Canadian Olympic team, Brannen must run the 'A' standard of 1:45.71, as well as a 'B' standard of 1:46.75, before July 11. In addition to running the two qualifying times, he must place among the top-four finishers in the event at the Canadian Track and Field Championships in July. Brannen will need to shave 0.29 seconds from his personal-best 1:46.00, a mark that he ran two years ago during his freshman campaign.
Willis looks to add his name to the list of great New Zealand 1,500-meter specialists, joining previous gold medalists Jack Lovelock, Peter Snell and John Walker. Having received prior approval to skip the New Zealand National Championships in early July, Willis needs only to run the 'A' qualifying standard of 3:36.20 in the 1500m to guarantee his selection to the Olympic team. With a personal best of 3:36.41 in the event, the Wolverine sophomore will need to shave just 0.21 seconds to achieve his lifetime goal. Additionally, with no New Zealand runners having run the 'A' qualifying standard in the 800-meter run, Willis thinks the 'B' standard of 1:47.00 may be sufficient to qualify him for the event.
| | Brannen (left) and Willis helped U-M set the collegiate record in the distance medley relay at 2004 NCAA Indoors. |
Despite coming from different backgrounds and growing up world s apart, Brannen and Willis traveled somewhat parallel paths to reach their present situation at Michigan. Both enjoyed success in running at an early age -- Willis won nearly every race he competed in until he was 13 years old -- both hit a tough patch that tested their commitment to the sport, and both experienced a breakthrough that made the Olympics a realistic goal in their future.
For Willis, it was the first international competition of his career at the 2000 Pacific School Games, held at the Sydney Olympic Park in the same year of the Olympic Games. The 16-year old won the 800-meter run, clocking 1:51 despite losing his shoe midway through the race.
"That was the race that got me back on track," said Willis, "because I realized how many big names had won it in the past. That was the breakthrough moment when I thought, 'I'm four years out; I've got four years to get there.'"
Brannen discovered his potential during his junior year in high sch ool when he won three Ontario individual titles -- cross country, 1,500 meters and 3,000 meters -- and placed second in the 1,500-meter run at the Canadian Junior Championships. At the time, Brannen also participated in hockey, but with his success at the Canadian Junior Championships, he traded his skates for track spikes and gave up everything else to concentrate solely on running. The following year, Brannen repeated his runner-up performance in the 1,500m at the Canadian Junior Championships and finished fourth at the Canadian Olympic Trials.
Staying to run in their native countries did not present an adequate challenge for either athlete and was never considered a viable option. Both chose to come to the United States to pursue better competition and better education. The choice then came down to which school would best help them reach their lofty goals. After visiting Ann Arbor and meeting head coach Ron Warhurst, the decision was not a difficult one.
"There was no reason for me to believe that Michigan wouldn't be the best place for me to come," said Willis, "and it's lived up to my expectations and more. With the progress that I've made here and the relationships that I have with Ron and Nate, there's nothing more I could ask for."
Progress has come quickly for Willis. In just his first season at Michigan, he shaved six seconds from his personal best in the 1,500 meters and looks to knock off another three seconds within the next several months. In the 3,000-meter run, the Wolverine sophomore has cut 45 seconds from his personal record and briefly held the collegiate record during the indoor season.
Brannen has experienced similar improvements in his running. After finishing 148th at the NCAA Cross Country Championships as a freshman, Brannen earned back-to-back All-America honors in subsequent seasons, including a 17th-place finish this past fall. On the track, Brannen has blazed U-M records in both the indoor and outdoor 800m, and in three years he has already boasted three NCAA titles and six All-America citations.
Both runners acknowledge the positive impact that they have had on each other since Willis arrived in Ann Arbor two years ago. Their head coach attributes much of their success and continued improvement to their similar attitudes and dedicated training habits.
"I think Nick and Nate work tremendously well together," said Warhurst, "and I think it helps that they run different events. Egos don't interfere with each other; they want to help each other accomplish their goals. They get along well; they get excited when the other is running well, which I think is great. They are very team-oriented, and both of them have made sacrifices to benefit the team."
"We both look at running the exact same way," said Brannen. "It helps me to know that there's somebody else going through exactly what I'm going through every single day. Just getting to train with him every day, there's nothing else I could really ask for. His dedication and mentality towards the sport are very similar to my own; we're both pretty competitive, and we both like to win. I feel like we're also pretty similar in abilities, but there's no rivalry between us at all. The faster he runs, the faster I run; and the faster I run, the faster he's going to run. On top of everything, we get along really well."
Adding to the mix will be former Wolverine Kevin Sullivan and assistant coach Tim Broe, both prominent professional runners who will spend the spring and summer months in Ann Arbor training under Warhurst.
Broe, the 2000 NCAA steeplechase champion at Alabama, has established himself as one of the top American distance runners after claiming U.S. titles in the 3,000- and 5,000-meter runs as well as breaking the American record in the 3,000m at the 2002 adidas Boston Indoor Games. At the 2000 Olympic Trials, Broe missed qualifying in the steeplechase by a mere 0.09 seconds.
| | Warhurst (right) has coached Brannen to two NCAA indoor individual titles. |
"You don't necessarily need more than two guys to make a solid training group," said Brannen, "but having Tim Broe and Kevin Sullivan here, that gives us one of the best training groups in the country, maybe even the world. There's no tension between any of us; we're all from different countries or running different events, so we're not competing against each other to make the Olympic team. We're all out there to get better for ourselves and help each out. I am very happy and honored to be able to train with those guys every day. It really is an amazing experience."
Sullivan is the only member of the group with previous Olympic experience. At the 2000 Sydney Summer Games, the Canadian runner took fifth place in the 1,500-meter run. Having gone through the training experience four years ago, Sullivan knows the type of commitment and dedication that is required for success at the Olympic level.
"Competing at this level requires a 24-7 commitment from now through August," said Sullivan, currently a volunteer coach at Illinois. "With everything you do, you need to think about how it will affect your training that day and the next day. With my experience, I think that I can bring a certain confidence to the group and to the training. I've gone through this before and when these guys see me go through it again, I think they will see what it takes to get to the same level of success."
Both Michigan runners know that they have the drive and the talent to reach the highest level in their sport. Expectations are high, but they are realistic.
"I have a ton of pressure on myself to make the Olympic Games," said Brannen. "Ever since I've been in college, it has been in the back of my mind. Right now, though, I just want to make it; I'm not thinking about anything else. Obviously, if I make it, I want to run as well as I can. I don't even really care if I make it to the semifinals or if I make it to the finals. As long as I make it to the Games and run well there, I'll be happy."
For Willis, the opportunity to compete in Athens would be not only a great personal accomplishment, but a ruler by which to measure his ability. Sharing this achievement with those important to him would make it all the more sweet.
"Ron coaches me to have a big finish in the last lap," said Willis, "so I'll finally be able to test myself against the best in the world and see whether I really do fit the bill to make running a career. To have my family over there to watch as well as Nate and Ron, it would just be such an amazing experience."
Contact: Leah Howard (734) 763-4423
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