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Emily Sisson on her way to a third-place finish at the 2006 Foot Locker Cross Country Championships.

Interview with Emily Sisson

Posted on December 13, 2006, Interview conducted December 9, 2006

By Alison Wade

Those who have followed running at the Junior Olympic level are likely familiar with the accomplishments of Emily Sisson, who won the Youth Girls national cross country title for the Cornhusker Flyers in 2005, and has been a top finisher on the national level in track. It was this season, as a freshman at Omaha's Marian High School, however, that Sisson had the opportunity to make her mark on the national high school scene. Sisson won the Nebraska Class A state title, leading her team to its fourth-straight state meet victory. She then outran another young star, Colorado's Kaitie Vanatta, to win the Foot Locker Midwest Regional. Sisson's winning time of 17:13 was just five seconds off Melody Fairchild's meet record on the University of Wisconsin-Parkside course. Making her first appearance at the Foot Locker National Finals two weeks later, Sisson lived up to her billing with a third-place finish against 39 of the country's best high school runners.

One year ago, as a 14-year-old eighth grader, Sisson ran the open race at the Foot Locker Midwest regional and was the fastest female with a 17:55. Her time would have placed her 11th in the seeded race. Before we were aware of this, we asked her how she did in that race. Sisson said that she didn't remember her place. When asked if she did well, she replied, "Yeah, pretty well."

Sisson set her 1,500m PR of 4:40.40 in finishing second to Jordan Hasay in the Youth Girls 1,500 at the 2005 USATF Junior Olympic Track & Field Championships. Her 3,000m PR of 9:46.64 came when she won the college/open division of the 3,000m at the 2006 Kansas Relays.

We caught up with Sisson several hours after her impressive nationals run.

We understand that your parents were good athletes. Can you tell us a little about that?
My dad [ran for] Wisconsin and my mom was a gymnast.

We read that your dad [Mark Sisson] ran a 4:02 mile.
Yeah, something like that. I don't know much about his running, sorry.

Is your dad the person who got you into running?
Actually, my friend did. I played soccer for a club and my friend who runs for a club [the Cornhusker Flyers] invited me to be on a relay team with her. I ran on the relay team with her and some other girls. I really liked it so I joined the club.

How long have you been running?
I started the summer going into seventh grade, so just over two years.

What kind of training do you do now? What kind of mileage do you run?
I'm so sorry, I don't know. I don't even want to guess, I'll probably be way off. I don't do a ton of miles or anything, I just do what my coach says [laughs].

Are you trained by your high school coach or a club coach?
During the high school season I'm with my high school coach, but after I'm with my club coach.

When did your high school season end?
At the Nebraska State Meet [on October 20th].

So have you been training with the Cornhusker Flyers since then?
Pretty much. My team was being considered for [Nike Team Nationals] so we kept training, but we didn't end up making it. I went to a couple of those [practices] but I mostly ended up training with my club.

How confident were you going into the Midwest Regional?
I definitely didn't think I was going to win it [laughs]. My goal was to be in the top 10.

Were you expecting this kind of success? Were your times significantly faster this year compared to last year?
Since I'm a freshman, this was my first time running all of the cross country courses. I was hurt for most of track season, so I didn't [have a lot to go on].

Did you have any idea you were in such great shape, though?
No [laughs]. My coach and my dad kept saying, 'You're going to be fine,' but I didn't know.

Has your training changed significantly from last year to this year?
Not significantly, I don't think. I quit soccer the summer going into eighth grade, and I couldn't run track last year, so this is one of my first seasons without soccer, so I guess I got to [focus] more on just running.

What made you decide to focus solely on track?
I guess I just started wondering, at soccer practices, if I should be running. I was just constantly thinking about running. Soccer was fun, but I wanted to do cross country and track.

Do you do any supplemental training, like weight lifting, to help your running?
I lift some weights, just for my arms, because they're pretty weak [laughs].

What will your winter look like in terms of training?
I'll get a break. I don't know when I'll start running, we don't do indoor track, but I'll train for [the outdoor] track season.

What was your strategy for the race today, and how did it play out?
The race wasn't at all like I thought it would be. I thought Kathy Kroeger and Aurora Scott would take it out fast, but they did just the opposite, so that was surprising. I was kind of confused because no one really pushed the pace for the first half of the race, until [Scott and Kroeger] surged ahead. I guess I was with them until then. There were a few times when Jordan Hasay got in front of me for a while and Kaitie Vanatta got in front of me for a while. I barely caught Kaitie, she's a good runner...they're all good runners.

Are you someone who really follows the sport? Were you aware of who a lot of these runners were before you got here?
I knew quite a few of them but I didn't know all of them. I didn't want to scare myself by looking at all of their PRs or anything; some of them have run pretty fast times.

What have you thought of this whole experience?
Oh, it's wonderful. San Diego's beautiful. I love it here. The race went by really fast. We got there, we warmed up, and then we ran.

Did the weather feel okay to you? This is certainly warmer than Nebraska right now.
The conditions seemed fine. I didn't really notice them while I was running because I was so into the race. It was six degrees in Nebraska when I left, but I left at 4:30 in the morning.