TMC cross country: Building a power

TMC is a national force

The Master’s College joined the Golden State Athletic Conference in 2001. Since then, it’s won four total conference titles.

Half of those belong to the men’s cross country program, which has won the last two. That marks the first time that any program has won back-to-back GSAC titles.

The men’s cross country program has been racking up a lot of firsts — as a team and as individuals.

On Saturday, the TMC men will take part in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics National Championships in Vancouver, Wash.

What would it mean to become the first NAIA national championship team in school history?

“It would mean that we accomplished what we set out to do at the beginning of the year,” said junior John Gilbertson, the team’s No. 1 runner.

It may be a straight-faced, grounded answer, but it’s a straight-faced, grounded approach that’s allowed the TMC men to reach such heights.

They finished 11th at NAIA Nationals last season, and this could be TMC’s best chance yet at winning a national title, with Gilbertson and junior Canyon High graduate Anthony Pizzo leading a deep lineup that’s earned a No. 3 ranking in the NAIA Coaches’ Poll.

Those runners have been training together since last summer, and they’ve been leading healthy lifestyles off the course when it comes to diet, rest time and things of that nature.

All together, those things have helped them reach this point, according to head coach Zach Schroeder.

“They’re very gifted, but they work very, very diligently,” Schroeder said. “I really don’t think that it’s possible to win if you aren’t doing everything that it takes to win.”

That also goes for Schroeder and his wife Amie, who is an assistant coach with the program.

Schroeder, who is now in his sixth year as coach, spends plenty of time scouting talented runners, but he said he also looks for character and commitment.

“Anybody can go out and play some sport,” he said. “You don’t go play cross country, you compete in cross country. You have to be a true athlete to be part of this sport.”

Once runners get into the program, Schroeder crafts the training regimen based on several factors, including human physiology and the study of what top runners of today do in their own workouts.

Runners work out at 6 a.m. Monday through Saturday, and they also run at 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. It takes a tremendous amount of dedication to run for TMC these days, but Pizzo said that’s what each runner is willing to commit.

“I think our mentality is always just excellence,” he said. “The precedent has been excellence in every area of our lives athletically and academically.”

Gilbertson added that former Mustang Jeff Jackson had a big influence on the team. Jackson became the second individual athlete in school history to win an NAIA title when he won the men’s marathon at the NAIA Outdoor Track and Field Championships last spring.

Jackson has since graduated, but Gilbertson refers to him as a “mentor” who taught him and Pizzo what it takes to be team captain.

“Just trying to be a good example for the people around me,” Gilbertson said. “Every practice, I train myself to be an elite athlete. I don’t take it lightly.”

Thanks to the results, other teams don’t take TMC lightly anymore.

At this year’s GSAC championships, Gilbertson finished first individually at Woodward Park in Fresno with a time of 24 minutes, 5 seconds. Pizzo was right behind him in second place at 24:08.

Then, the rest of the pack poured across the finish line. Sophomore Matthew Crichton finished 15th in 25:43, sophomore Paul Jesson came in 19th with a time of 25:52 and senior Josiah Downer was 21st in 25:55.

The two non-scoring runners, freshman John Hurd and sophomore David Eller, finished 25th and 29th, respectively, which demonstrated the Mustangs’ formidable depth.

Only one of the runners on the team isn’t from Southern California — Hurd hails from Pennsylvania — and all of them stay locally to work with the team for most of the year. Schroeder said that’s a big element of the program.

“In a typical college experience, you go eight months, and in the other fourth months you have an envelope of workouts and you do them alone,” he said. “For us to be able to have these local kids come into the program … it creates a fine team environment and camaraderie.”

By virtue of its GSAC title, TMC earned an invitation to the NAIA Nationals. The 32-team field includes 21 conference champions, one runner-up and nine at-large selections, according to the NAIA website.

Schroeder said he hopes the success of the men’s cross country program will permeate throughout TMC.

Pizzo said the previous experience at NAIA Nationals will help the team this Saturday. The men’s 8K race is scheduled to start at 10:30 a.m. in Vancouver.

“I’m tremendously excited,” Pizzo said.

There are plenty of reasons to be excited about the future of the program, too.