Questions and Answers with Adam Harris
2/20/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Track & Field
During his first two seasons at Michigan, junior Adam Harris set the indoor school record for the 60-meter dash, took second place in the 200-meter dash record book and received a new name -- so what else See what Harris has to say about his future goals, why he started running, his new name and much more.
Q: Congratulations on setting the 60-meter dash record this season. What other goals have you set for yourself this indoor season
Adam Harris: "I'm still trying to get a faster time right now, so it will hopefully hold up until nationals. A lot of people have got much faster than what they were in the beginning of the year. I went from number two in the country to about number six right now, so I just have to pick it up a little bit to get in that final and hopefully get a good break."
Q: Have you met or exceeded your goals or expectations coming in at Michigan
AH: "Pretty much my goals coming in as a freshman were to get faster times than what I came in with, I think I've done pretty well with that. My goals every year are to go farther than what I ran last year. I didn't expect to go as fast as I have so far but it is great going that fast, and for outdoor I hopefully can go a lot faster than expected."
Q: Do you feel any added pressure on yourself for running so fast so early
AH: "Yeah, now I'm one of the top people and everyone else is trying to take me down."
Q: What are your thoughts on beating Ohio State in "The Dual"
AH: "It was a big rivalry, even between me and Anthony Cole, we've had a rivalry in ourselves since freshman year. He beat me by 0.01 a second my freshman year and last year he kind of just whooped on me, so it was nice to get back at him and the whole team in the dual. It was great to run around with the pennant for a victory lap and we will have to do it again in Big Tens."
Q: Growing up what interested you the most in track
AH: "My whole family played a lot of sports so I too played a lot of sports. I started out with football and by the seventh grade I was doing football, soccer in the summer and that was the first year we were allowed to do track in Illinois. My whole family, my dad, my mom, they all ran track so I try to beat their times and do what they do, so it worked out pretty well."
Q: Has traveling to Beijing for the Olympics ever crossed your mind
AH: "I'd love to. Yeah, I'm trying to get my 60m time down 0.07 seconds, so if I can drop my 60m time down then I know I can do the same in the 100m. I would like to get to Beijing as soon as possible."
Q: When did you really start running competitively
AH: "Probably my junior year in high school. My sophomore year I was on the varsity team but it kind of sucked because I was running against guys that were older, I was getting beat and I was like man this is really bad. My junior year I started to get a bit faster, my times picked up, I was the fastest kid on the team and in Illinois."
Q: Who in the past or present time would you love to meet
AH: "I would love to have met the old Michael Jackson -- not the one now. Everyone liked Michael back in the day. I'd like to hang out with him back in his Thriller days. I'd like to hang out in "Never Land" too; that would be cool."
Q: What would you say is your greatest accomplishment here at Michigan off the track
AH: "I would say making it this far in school. Classes are pretty hard. I had to do a lot of work to get this far; I'm still working hard. Getting this far and still being eligible, doing all that work, still running would be my best accomplishment."
Q: Where did the nickname "Smilez" come from
AH: "'Smilez'" pretty much came from Jeff Porter. During conditioning we have extremely hard workouts. Jeff would always look at me and I would always be smiling. So it just picked up from there, a hard workout everyone is dying and I'm still smiling. I threw the 'z' in there, I didn't want to be smiles with an 's' so I thought I would do something a little different."
