George Washington University Athletics
'Yin and Yang'
5/23/2018 12:00:00 AM | Men's Track/Cross Country
Carter Day and Matt Lange are headed into GW track and field history Friday night when they toe the starting line at USF Track & Field Stadium in Tampa, Fla., for the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the NCAA East Preliminary Round.
It's a sure sign of the Colonials' growth that they're sending their first student-athletes to the national meet in their fourth year of year-round competition.
That Day and Lange are the ones to do it â€" in the same event, to boot â€" says perhaps even more about the program.
"With us," Lange said, "you really get the yin and yang of the group." Day is the soft-spoken and uber-talented Canadian who has devoted four years of laser-focused trial and error at GW to finding the form needed to earn a shot on the national stage. He's flourished as a senior, highlighted by a pair of A-10 gold medal wins, by learning to channel that cerebral approach into consistent performance.
Lange is the fun-loving and boisterous New Yorker by way of Furman University always quick with a joke to cut the tension during a tough workout. He joined the Colonials as a graduate transfer and found the extra push needed to take the next step in his collegiate career. Together, the pair of Colonials reached that goal in an event neither had ever run before this spring. The unlikely training partners have made for a perfect match.
"You have two polar opposites (in personality), but in terms of athletic ability, they're right on," head coach Terry Weir said. "I think deep down their passion for track and passion to be the best they can be are right up there equal, as well.
"It's kind of The Odd Couple there, but I think you peel back from what you see right off the bat and they're probably more alike than you think."
Day and Lange's choice of event certainly backs up that sentiment.
The steeplechase challenges runners by adding in five hurdles, one of them requiring a jump over water, on each lap. The event throws a wrinkle into distance training with daily form work and flexibility exercises to navigate the hurdles. All that jumping requires an extra layer of focus and athleticism in racing.
Weir competed in steeplechase early in his college career at South Alabama and nearly qualified for the U.S. World Junior Team in the event but eventually made the calculated decision to focus on more traditional distance racing.
"It's one of those things you've got to buy into it," Weir said. "It's a hard race. Some people really enjoy it, but it's a grinding, tough race."
For Day, the addition of the steeplechase to his event load as a senior was a risk worth taking.
A former member of Canada's Junior National Team, Day had useful experience running the 400-meter hurdles in high school. His speed and athleticism seemed a good fit for steeplechase, especially coming off a strong cross country season in the fall.
"As crazy as it sounds," Day said, "it looked like it could be a lot of fun."
Lange arrived at GW in the fall familiar with what it takes to be a steeplechaser. His coach at Furman, Robert Gary, was a former Olympian in the steeplechase, and his roommate there, Troy Reeder, is a two-time All-American in the event.
Lange's best event indoors has always been the 3,000 meters, so he believed the distance was a good fit. He was a newbie when it came to hurdling, though. "I figured I'd throw myself into steeplechase and see what could happen," said Lange, who led the Colonials at the Atlantic 10 Cross Country Championships with a sixth-place finish. "I have some ugly jumps out there, but it's been enough to get me through."
This spring, Day and Lange have pushed through their steeplechase crash course together.
The pairing wasn't exactly by design, but Weir has been pleased with the results.
"They balance each other out," Weir said.
Lange has been there to remind Day to have fun with the training and not overthink the work, while Day has provided a daily model of consistency with his intensity for Lange to follow.
"If I'm slacking, I know he'll call me out for it, and if he's slacking, he wants me to call him out for it," Day said. "It's an accountability thing to have a teammate like him there with you that's just as committed to it as you are."
In spite of their differences in approach, they've developed a close friendship off the track, particularly over their shared love of Marvel movies.
"It's been great," Lange said. "I couldn't ask for a better training partner than Carter. Just knowing someone's always there and going through the same things as you can really help you get through."
The Colonials took slightly different paths to their NCAA invitations.
Day's steeplechase debut was nearly disastrous. At William & Mary's Colonial Relays in April, he came down awkwardly over an early hurdle and had to pull out of the race.
Weir feared Day's steeplechase experiment â€" if not his season â€" might be over there, but the runner shook off the minor ankle injury and quickly resumed his training.
Day broke the program record with a 9:01.45 at George Mason the following weekend and went even faster to clock his NCAA qualifying time of 8:58.40 en route to a win at the A-10 Championships.
"That's just an incomparable high when you finish a hard race like that," said Day, who later added gold in the 5,000 meters. "They call it the 'Three Minutes of Pain' where you go into that last kilometer of the race. Everything's hurting. Everything's telling you to stop. And you just have to push through that."
Lange, meantime, started his steeplechase career with a promising 9:07.86 at Colonial Relays before slower showings at the Larry Ellis Invitational and A-10 Championships. It took some convincing from those closest to him to give the event one more shot at the ECAC/IC4A Championship on May 13. That decision paid off in his qualifying time of 9:00.11, about 10 seconds faster than his run at the conference championship.
"It wasn't so much whether I was going to be fit enough to do it," Lange said. "It was just a matter of putting it all together on one day."
Those breakthroughs meant a couple of extra weeks training together and a trip to Florida to race some of the nation's best steeplechasers.
Last Tuesday, the preparations ramped up with perhaps their hardest workout of the spring. They started at 7:30 a.m. with a four-mile tempo run, increasing their speed with each one to a sub-5:00 mile pace. After lunch, they hit the track for a grueling sprint workout that included a couple of 800-meter runs at 4:00-mile pace.
It was tough, but the Colonials made it through. And Lange wouldn't have wanted anyone else by his side.
"I think you really need a mix of all kinds of personalities to have a team be successful," Lange said. "I think that's what we've showed this year. We have a really good mix of guys from all walks of life, and when you put it together, we're getting good results."
Players Mentioned
