Falcon Focus is a weekly piece highlighting one of our many outstanding student-athletes at UW-River Falls. These Falcons share their personal journeys that brought them to UW-River Falls, insights into their teams, and a few of their personal interests.

Julian, can you give us a quick recap of your season?
This season we had a lot of milestones. We had our first male victory in school history in an 8K cross country race. We had our first individual male champion in the Roy Griak race. Our team also qualified only the second male to compete at the NCAA National Championships. We're heading in a really good direction. As a team, we showed a lot of growth and set the bar as high as it has ever been for the program.

You mentioned the team showed a lot of growth. What do you attribute that growth to?
The higher expectations that Coach Nathan Petesch set for us this year. Before this year, we had not qualified a male for the NCAA championships in quite a while. But coming in, he told us it was possible and said we should be qualifying individuals every year. It was viewed as an expectation and not some gloriously unique achievement that only happens once in a while. We should be represented every year on the national level at that race. So we just looked at things differently this year.

With Coach Petesch coming in, is there anything training-wise that he did differently that you all really responded to?
His training is something completely different than what we had focused on. We have had good training in the past, but Coach Petesch was having us really focus on tempo work. Our hard days are much higher and tougher in volume, but also our easier days are much easier than in the past. It was that tempo zone that I think really made a difference where we were running at "race pace" to get a feel for it and remember that feeling on race day.

Looking ahead to next year's cross country season, what expectations will this team have?
Every year the goal is to do better than you did last season and eventually you'll be one of the best teams in the conference and because of this conference, that would also make you one of the top teams in the nation. For next year we're looking for a top 5 finish and for the men qualify more individuals for the national championships and bring home some All-American honors.

Do you have any rituals or superstitions on race day?
I always eat a cream cheese bagel with honey and I triple tie my shoe laces. I also never race with a watch.
 
What advice do you have for the underclassmen on your team?
The stronger the relationships you can build with your teammates, the stronger the team will be. If you're best friends with your teammates, you will want to go to practice and have fun while you're there. You'll also want to run harder for your friends to achieve success together. If the entire team has that attitude, you'll achieve more together as a group and push each other to better things.

Did you always know you wanted to run in college and why did you choose UW-River Falls?
Well when I graduated high school, I was planning on running in college but when I was applying to schools I didn't know what I wanted to do. I only started running my senior year of high school but I enjoyed it. So I was really new to running when I was applying to universities. I came to River Falls because of the music department but as I got further into my senior year and the saw this program here as well. I got more excited about running the more I learned about the program here at River Falls.
 
 
What is your favorite…
Ice cream?   Vanilla
Spot on campus?  Practice rooms in KFA
Movie?   Seeking a Friend for the End of the World
Food?   Cereal
Holiday?   Christmas
TV Show?   Family Guy
Thing to do when you aren't out running with your teammates? Volleyball, we play so much volleyball
 
If you could race anywhere in the world, where would it be?
The Olympics.

If you were a box a cereal, which one would it be?
Raisin nut bran
 
If you could have a super power, what would it be?
Slow down time

Dogs or cats? Dogs
Coffee or tea? Tea
Cheeseburger or pizza? Pizza
Hunter or gatherer? Hunter
Justin Timberlake or Justin Beiber? Timberlake