It’s not too often that the guy who finishes fourth at the state meet is talked about being the best, especially if he kept both shoes on. However, David Osborn has created such thoughts amongst the fans of the sport of cross country. After his fourth place finish, he has kept his focus and recently placed seventh at the Nike Cross National meet which was held in Portland, Oregon. Meanwhile, he verbally committed to become an Oklahoma State Cowboy in the fall of 2010. This means he will be running with the biggest team name on the college distance running scene, and be a part of the defending NCAA champions team next fall.
David was kind enough to give up time to talk about a lot of topics which many fans may be curious about. I will break down each topic and explain them from David’s point of view.
State Meet
David highlights that the best part of the state meet was his team’s runner up finish. “It turned things back to how [they were] when my brothers ran back in the day. We suddenly had a pack like the old Valparaiso team did. We didn’t plan it out that way; it just happened. It was a great way to end my senior season with a lot of teammates who I had been running with since the 8th grade”. While David finished near the front of every race in the season, his teammates would quickly come in packed together, seconds apart from one another. This pack included perhaps David’s primary training partner, Ryan Cutter (after Andrew Morris suffered an early season injury).
David admittedly laughed about his tactical error of taking the lead before the mile mark at the state meet which may or may not have cost him some places in the overall race. However, he says he rather take a chance than run safe. He learned this lesson from Chesterton alumni Adam Martin, who took the lead with 400 to go during the epic Turner v Weatherford diving finish mile at the 2006 IHSAA Track and Field State Meet. Adam did not medal that year after being in first with about 200 to go, but never has regretted it. It is now a mentality at Chesterton High School.
The “behind the scenes” teammate to the Chesterton Trojans appears to be Coach Tim Ray. David says he is “one of the guys always joking and messing with us, but he also knows when to get serious”. Coach Ray has earned his respects with past successes, and the 2009 season will be added to his resume. He is often forgotten about due to not having a state title, but he consistently puts his teams in contention, and has had tremendous success with the Boys Cross Country program at Chesterton High School.
All-Star, NXN, and FLMW… are you crazy?
There has been a trend of top athletes opting out of the All-Star meet in favor of the NXN or Footlocker Midwest meet in recent years. This year only Tyler Byrne did, but we discussed if he [David] had any regrets on doing all three. While he is unsure if the heavy load of elite level races were part of his “poor” performance at Footlocker, he would do it all the same again. He thought “The [All-Star Meet] was a great experience, especially with meeting all the other Indiana guys.”
The NXN Experience --- Qualifying and On
While talking with David, you could hear in his voice how fun the Nike experience was. Now a few days past the experience, and most likely being bombarded with tests at school, he still emitted emotion that was connected to the Nike race. I am going to quickly bullet point a few things that David highlighted about his experience in his play-by-play to me from his qualifying race, from Footlocker to Nike.
- After qualifying at Terre Haute, the Nike representatives immediately began telling him about what would be happening for the national meet. This began building excitement.
- After a random bad day at FLMW, David took two days off. He then began running some lower mileage (4-5 miles a day) with a little bit of speed.
- He left Thursday morning by himself, as his parents and coach were taking different flights.
- At this time, he met the York athletes.
- Once in Portland, the athletes spend a lot of time in the Tiger Woods Center at Nike. This is essentially their home-base.
- At the Tiger Center, they are fitted for shoes and spikes and allowed to run on a 7 mile trail loop at Nike HQ.
- David says the coolest thing there is the track with a forest in the middle of it.
- Opening ceremonies begin which include athletes such as Dathan Ritzenhein, Bernard Lagat, Amy Yoder-Begely, Kara and Adam Goucher.
- He is randomly paired with another individual qualifier from Wisconson, Marcus Paulson, as a roommate.
- They have a Q&A session with the elite runners.
Day of the Race
- Goal: Top 15-20
- “Most nervous I have ever been before a race”
- David admits he was under a lot of stress and ate more than his usual breakfast before the race.
- A decent drive through the mountains and into heavy fog, all signs were pointing towards a very unique day to remember.
- Tyler Byrne and David spent most of their time together for warming up and everything else in the day. They were also accompanied by another Illinois qualifier, Martin Grady.
- Lane 10
- The race went out hard, and David found himself in the front pack right before the first turn 200 meters in.
- Through the mile in 4:44 (leaders at 4:42)… leading chase pack.
- Right before Whoop-do-doos (hills), leaders did not seem to want to move, allowing the chase pack to close in on them, forming a large group up front (about 15 runners).
- At 2.5k, front guys pull away again, but David also began pulling away from some of the chase pack.
- David put his focus on another athlete he had met during his OSU visit, Sherod Hardt (of Arizona)
- David and Hardt moved from the 2.5k through 4.5k together.
- At about 3k, David knew it was going to be a good race.
- David didn’t do anything drastic the final stretch but just held on.
- Far exceeded goals
- Gear collected immediately and sent back to Athletic Directors
Being a Cowboy
David was not recruited heavily, as the colleges who had made regular contact with him were Tulsa, Purdue, and Butler. However, David took it upon himself to reach out to coaches and gain some attention.
When he met his future coaches, Bobby Lockhart and Sean McCabe, he quickly realized they were a lot like Chesterton’s Coach Ray. They were very laid back, but serious when need-be. The kids on the team were also like this, with a lot of jokes. David found himself very comfortable amongst the Cowboys. Not to mention, the city of Stillwater is focused on the college, which means everyone is supports the school, wearing their bright orange shirts. When talking about the NCAA meet, David said it was “exciting to see my teammates for next year win”. He is looking forward to training with American Distance star German Fernandez and Colby Lowe, as well as the rest of the team.
David expects to red-shirt his freshman year. He will be studying chemical-engineering, which the school is well known for.
Advice to other runners:
“Focus on quality of miles over quantity. Utilize the winter, because it’s usually a big chunk of time and can be more crucial than the summer season. I think a lot of people don’t realize that. I think that is what took me to the next level.”
Track Goal:
While David did not say he plans to win the state title, he would like run in the low 9’s in the 3,200. This will surely put him in contention for the top finishing spot, as everybody would expect.
David was very polite and mature throughout this interviewing process. I feel it is important to highlight that David opened a lot of doors for himself as a future collegiate athlete by also excelling greatly in school, although running fast doesn’t hurt either. David should finish in the top 10% of his class.
IndianaRunner.com looks forward to watching David end his high school career season with a great finish.
Thanks David!