The captain of the UB men's cross-country team is having a year to remember. In limited competition, junior Daniel McKenna already has a victory and a second-place finish, and the future looks even brighter.
"My hope is to make top-five in the (Mid-American Conference) and make it to nationals," McKenna said.
McKenna has set his personal goals as high as possible and leads his fellow teammates by example.
A graduate of Liverpool High School, McKenna ran track all four years and cross-country for three. His coach at the time was a friend of UB cross-country head coach Vicky Mitchell.
"The relationship between my coaches was definitely a factor in me choosing to attend UB," McKenna said. "But my brother was also attending school here so I'd be lying if I said that didn't also play a role in the decision."
McKenna, like many other athletes making the transition from high school to college, was shocked at the jump in the level of competition.
"The competition is unreal. At first, it was intimidating but you step up," McKenna said. "Every meet in college is like the biggest meet in high school."
Training must also increase in order to play at the college level. McKenna's training consists of running between 70 and 80 miles per week. Jack Daniels, a coach at SUNY Cortland, started this style of training and Mitchell had adapted it for both the men's and women's cross-country team.
"According to Jack Daniels, 70 miles is the magic number," McKenna said. "Any more than that, and the risk of injury is not worth it. High mileage is risky. Low mileage isn't."
So far this season, Daniels' style of training has paid off for McKenna. The team opened up this year's season at the 37th Annual Tommy Evans Invitational. The Bulls and the host Akron Zips were the only teams that competed at the invitational and McKenna finished first at the meet with a time of 20:36, his best finish so far at UB.
The course was only a four-mile race, instead of the normal distance of 8 kilometers, which works out to be around 5.1 miles. Despite McKenna's strong result, the team as a whole lost to Akron by a score of 34 to 23.
"Akron and Ohio are our major in-conference rivals," McKenna said. "The win was very satisfying on a personal level, but the loss to a team we are so familiar with hurts all the same."
The team's second meet of the year was held at Toledo, Ohio. The 8-kilometer course was laid out over the Ottawa Park Golf Course, and McKenna crossed the finish line in second place at 25:06 and recorded a personal best time for an 8-kilometer course.
McKenna and the cross-country team will head to the Paul Short Invitational at Lehigh University this Saturday. This is usually one of the largest and most competitive events for the team. If McKenna's performances so far this year are any indicator, a quick start could equal a strong finish.
