D3 Glory Days Podcast

“My mentality that day was, I wanted to improve my tombstone.” The Olympic Marathon Trials is February 3rd and we plan to tell tales of D3 grads that hit will be in Orlando. Today, we bring you the story of Dan Vassallo. Dan qualified for his third Olympic Trials at the McKirdy Micro Marathon in October. Vassallo’s longevity in the sport is something to be studied. He graduated from Colby in 2007...

“I was absolutely not expecting any of them to come. And so, I think just over the mile mark, I heard they're distinct cheering and saw them on the side and I don't really smile during races, but they got me to smile.” It’s been a wild 2.5 weeks for Fiona Smith. On November 18th, she won the D3 XC Nationals. Two weeks later, she broke the D3 Indoor 5k record running 15:50. Two days after s...

“I’m just so grateful for those guys. They're the whole reason I'm here, they're the reason I'm pushing, they're the reason I race like that. And damn, I just love them. I love them to death and I'm so proud of them.” The redemption arc the whole division was watching. In May, Ethan Gregg was DQ’d for a false start in the 5k final. In November, he won the D3 XC Individual N...

“You can anticipate something like that all season. Like in theory, we knew we could do it. But actually seeing that [the scoreboard with Carleton #1] and knowing that we did it was just a completely different thing.” Phoebe Ward, Sophie McManus, and Mary Blanchard join D3 Glory Days to relive their national championship! With all but Clara Mayfield returning from last year’s team, Carleton knew t...

“And to think, not what if it goes wrong, what if it goes really well, it's just super empowering.” What a weekend for D3 Cross Country. We begin telling the stories of the weekend with Lucas Florsheim and Derek Fearon. They're fresh off a team title after coming into the championship ranked 8th. They touch on the highs of winning in 2021 and the lows of finishing 5th in 2022. This duo bri...

We sit down with 6 coaches to review their seasons and what they're excited for the D3 Cross Country National Championship. They all bring a unique perspective to their situation and provide valuable insights for runners and coaches. You'll hear themes of positivity and building of team cultures. You get a sense of why these programs are contending for a national title. Time Stamp 2:34 - D...

The interregional weekend proved to be an exciting weekend. With strong performances all over the country, we’re highlight two pairs that ran well together and for their team. Two Pocket Aces Awards today. The Pocket Aces award on the Men’s side goes to Frank Csorba and Chasen Hunt. Frank and Chasen went 1-2 at the Mike Woods Invite and led Lynchburg to a runner-up performance. We spoke to them ab...

Teams from all over the country traveled to Pennsylvania to get a look at the National Meet course. Typically the Pre-National meet is circled on the calendar and produces great performances. The CMS women flew from California and put on a show. They won 51-99 over MIT and put 5 in the top 15. We're joined today by Nat Bitetti and Elle Marsyla who finished 2nd and 5th. Nat and Elle go into the...

The D3 Cross Country season is heating up. The big meets are approaching and the performances are taking it up a notch. For Week 5, we’re bring back the Pocket Aces award and recognizing someone who faired well against strong competition. The Pocket Aces award goes to Morgan Uhlhorn + Grace Richardson from NYU. This duo finished third and fourth at the Paul Short Brown Race which helped NYU take t...

As we enter the busy part of the XC season, we award the next batch of D3 Glory Days Runner of the Week Awards. For the first time in this young award, the runners hail from the same college. Week 4 winners are John Lucey and Genna Girard from Williams College. After winning the Little 3 Championship last weekend, John Lucey continued his winning ways in 2023. This time, he crossed the line first...

A new week brings a new set of Runners of the Week. We honor James Settles and Olivia Pisacano as the Week 3 D3 Glory Days Runners of the Week! James Settles won his race out in Denver in 24:50. The senior from Colorado College is coming off a breakout year where he finished 4th in the Outdoor 5k and ran 14:08. Settles finished 60th last year and has found a new sense of confidence that is helping...

We're on to week 2 of the Runner of the Week Awards. This week we came across a duo from UW-Whitewater that crossed the finish line at basically the same time. Gunner Schlender and Christian Patzka opened up their season is dominating fashion by gapping the field by over a minute. The duo earns the 'Pocket Aces' award as we get a glimpse of what their hand could be this year. The duo c...

We’re excited to bring you something new this season. In an effort to continue to support and grow D3XCTF, we felt the next best step would be to bring weekly awards. Introducing the D3 Glory Days Runner of the Week Award. We’ll scan results each week for the athletes and teams we thought had the best performance. Some weeks may not be meet winners or those that ran the fastest. We’ll do our best...

Emily Richards comes back to D3 Glory Days as a guest. She gives us an update on her post collegiate running. The 9x D3 Champ had a contract with Hoka but lost the contract during COVID. She now runs with Tracksmith in their amateur development program. Emily shares her journey of running without a contract and where she fits in the sport of running. She's made 7 US championships and is still...

"I had such a low opinion of myself after going through the addiction that I thought, 'I am not going to be mediocre at anything that I do in my life.'" The endurance athlete masters' superstar, Ken Rideout, joins D3 Glory Days. We extend our first non running invitation to Ken as he played D3 Football and Hockey at Framingham State. Ken takes us through his July where he com...

2x Shot Put champion Roger Steen joins D3 Glory Days to recap his meet out at USAs, his time at UW-Eau Claire, and how coaching has been so impactful to his own throwing. Roger went to UW-Eau Claire with the intention of just playing football. After the season, he wanted to continue competing and asked to try out for track and field. With a strong program, Steen felt behind in his training and act...

When Annika Urban stepped off the track for the final time in Rochester, NY, she would move on from a D3 career as a two time national champion. It’s an incredible story of determination and falling in love with the process when you realize she finished 266th in the 2019 Cross Country National Championships. She credits her first big jump to being competitive with her brother. Over COVID, they wou...

"I found something I can do well in and want to keep excelling in every day to see my family be proud of me." Sam Blaskowski joins D3 Glory Days to talk records, team culture, and life after UW-La Crosse. Bad news for the rest of D3, Sam isn't going anywhere. Sam takes us through the national meet with the highs of winning and setting a record, to the lows of watching Ethan Gregg get...

"I was saying, 'yay, yay, yay,' in my head the minute I started not seeing anyone with me at all. You just get closer to the finish line and it's like, 'wow, this is mine.'" Michelle Kwafo describes the feeling of pulling away from the field to win her first national title. Not only did she win the national title, but she set the new D3 100m Record in the process. 11....

The 2023 D3 Outdoor track and field national championships are here! We sit down with four athletes to hear how their season went, what they’re looking forward to in Rochester, and how they handle the big meet. Four unique storylines from these athletes were uncovered: Max Svienty - massive progression in college Natalia Sawyer - almost didn’t run college Matt McBride - keeping with the Mt. Union...

Fresh off a 4minute PR and an OTQ, Jesse Joseph joins D3 Glory Days. One look at Jesse’s TFRRs and his marathon PR, and you see a classic story of progression. Jesse didn’t see a breakthrough in his running until his senior year. That’s when he finally made the varsity cross country team and qualified for the 10k outdoors. That breakthrough was everything he needed to keep going with running. Afte...

"I trust my training for the past three years. It hasn't failed me" Christian Patzka joins D3 Glory Days to talk about his exciting 5k championship, what he looks forward to this season, and why he's trusted his training through college. In this era of running, you can find what other people are doing very easily. Patzka doesn't get caught up in what others do and continues t...

"There was so much joy, not just at the finish line, but throughout the whole time." Fresh off of winning the Carmel Marathon in 2:33, we welcome Parley Hannan back to D3 Glory Days. The 3x D3 Champion from Ithaca ran an OTQ in her debut marathon. She takes us through her training and how she necessarily wasn't planning to run a marathon. She also is very honest and open with us abou...

"He [Isaac] did it for me because that's what we do here" We welcome Ethan Gregg to his full episode. After his exciting Indoor National weekend and running 28:40, we wanted to learn more about the biggest grinder in D3. This is another case of an average high school runner (4:41/9:45 1600/3200) making the mental switch of wanting to be great. It's clear from Ethan's mindset...

You thought your track meets were busy? Try doing a pentathlon plus two individual events. That was the workload Victoria Kadiri had at this year's indoor national meet. She came away with two national titles, a fifth place finish in the pent and a new D3 Record in the triple jump. She has won 5 total D3 Titles. Victoria becomes the first woman indoors to break the 13m barrier and the second i...