With collegiate careers ending, 4 SU seniors qualify for Big East championships
Chris Fox remembers the state of Syracuse track and field when he entered his first year as head coach in 2005. To put it bluntly, the team simply wasn’t that good. But five years later, that is no longer the case.
And Fox has a quartet of departing players to thank for that.
‘They came in and we were terrible, and now we’re pretty good,’ Fox said.
SU burst onto the national landscape during the last four years for a multitude of reasons, one of which has to do with a group of distance runners from Fox’s first recruiting class. Brad Miller, Dan Busby, Curtis Bixler and Jeff Scull have carried the Orange on their backs the last four years, and the results are clear. All have qualified for the Big East Outdoor Championships this weekend and have aspirations of making it to nationals.
But for now, the focus is on the Big East, which is the most important meet of the season so far. After last week’s solid performance at the Penn Relays, Busby is ready to finally make his mark in the Big East. He will be running the 10K for the third time, and he’s hoping that will be the charm.
Busby last competed in the event during his freshman and sophomore years with disappointing results.
‘It has been my Achilles’ heel,’ Busby said.
Fox expects both Busby and his roommate, Miller, to win their events this weekend. After four years, they know what to expect at each meet.
The meet is the second-most important meet of the year behind nationals.
‘I would be disappointed if they don’t qualify for nationals,’ Fox said. ‘They’re seniors and they know it.’
Even though Miller and Busby have the fourth- and fifth-fastest 5000-meter times in the conference, respectively, neither will be competing in that event at the Big East championships. It’s a statistic that speaks to how deep SU’s roster is.
Still, Busby and Miller will need to serve as anchors if they are going to place well as a team.
‘It’s the one meet out of the year that we really look for team points,’ Bixler said. ‘It’s the once race of the season when we just worry about racing people and not times.’
Bixler will be competing in the steeplechase for his third and final time. Last year he came in fourth, and he is looking to drop even more time off his scores from that meet.
Miller, meanwhile, is returning to SU next year for a fifth year. But for Busby and Bixler, this meet is their curtain call before regionals, and possibly nationals.
‘Me and Dan are looking to finish on a really good note,’ Bixler said.
Now seniors, the duo of Busby and Miller, along with Bixler, have experienced the ups and downs.
‘I’m better, more disciplined (as a senior),’ Busby said. ‘In high school I didn’t know anything about running. I just went out and did it. I’ve learned to run a lot smarter.’
He hopes that intelligence will carry him to a performance four years in the making. A performance that will hopefully propel him to nationals.
Said Busby: ‘I want to reverse the curse.’
