Hokie ClubWomen's cross country runner Tasmin Fanning recently earned Virginia Tech Athlete of the Week honors for the third time this year after placing 12th at the NCAA Cross Country Championships to become the women's program's fourth-ever All-American. He are Tasmin's thoughts on her accomplishment:
-Has it hit you yet that you can say you are the 12th best runner in the country? And that's it's the best any Hokie (woman) has ever done at the national championship?
“The accomplishment hasn’t quite hit me yet. I have to remind myself when I wake up. On the women’s side for the Hokies, this was the best finish yet, but I hope it sets a standard for all of us to improve on in the future.â€
-Were you surprised at how well you performed? What were your thoughts immediately following the race?
“I wasn’t surprised at my finish, but more happily satisfied. I knew I could be All-American and compete with the best out there, but it was just a matter of actually doing it, or how well I could do it. After the race, I was tired, but very happy. I didn’t know my exact place, but I knew it was top 15, which exceeded my expectations, and all I could do was smile.â€
-According to Coach Thomas, you kept improving your position as the race went on. How did you make that happen?
“In a field of 250 runners it’s important to get out well, but not to expend all your energy at the start to do that. I managed to get out in a pack towards the front, and rolled with that momentum for the first kilometer of the race. People started dropping off the pack, and I kept my composure and began picking some people off. With less than 2k to go, I was starting to feel tired, but I looked in front of me and some saw girls, and knew I could get to them. It was a lot of challenging myself to pass people even when I was tired, but I knew that they were, too, so why not make a move? Coach was giving me my placement throughout the race, so I always knew where I was. When he counted me in placement for All-American, there was no way I was going to lose that.â€
-The team just missed out on qualifying for the second-straight year, so how important was it to represent Virginia Tech all by yourself?
“Not qualifying as a team was devastating. Last year we were 18th but we were not satisfied, and we were eager to come back this year to improve. We didn’t get that chance as a team, but I knew I could represent Tech well and show some people that had the team been there, we would have done some damage.â€