PIUS STUCKI SPOTLIGHT
9-13-02

Senior men's cross country runner Pius Stucki (Altendorf, Switzerland) earned his place in the Ram Spotlight by winning the Rams' first race of the year two weeks ago at East Carolina. One of the top runners in the CAA, Stucki appears to have regained the form that allowed him to finish in the top three of every race last year - until the CAA Championships. "At the CAAs I didn't run too well," he said of his 13th place finish. "I don't know what went wrong. Maybe I was burned out, or the weather was too cold. I was in good shape, it just didn't work out the way I had hoped."

    Sub-par finishes at the conference and regional meets are just part of what motivates Stucki to turn in his best season yet at VCU. Last spring, Stucki was having an outstanding season on the track, running a personal-best 8:53.29 in the 3,000-meter steeplechase to qualify provisionally for the NCAA Track and Field Championships. That time was the second-fastest time by a Swiss athlete in that event last season. Stucki and head coach Julian Spooner felt he could improve on that time, but a mid-season injury that hampered Stucki for three weeks dashed his hopes for another fast time.

    Stucki used both disappointments over the last year to push him to train through a hot summer in Richmond. "This summer I ran about 90-100 miles a week," he said. "You have to be really motivated to get up every morning at 6:00 to run that kind of mileage in hot weather.

    "I didn't do any hard workouts, just miles. It's given me a good base, and I can recover faster from workouts. Right now, I'm winning races without doing hard workouts, and that gives me a lot of confidence. When the conference and region meets come, I'll be fresh and ready to go."

    Although Stucki is confident he can atone for his disappointing race at the CAAs a year ago, his main focus is qualifying for the NCAA Cross Country Championships at the regional meet. Stucki found the logo for the NCAA meet on the internet, printed it out on large sheets of paper and has it posted over his bed and in front of his desk. "I can see it whenever I do my homework and before I go to bed," he said. "I focus on it every day. I figure whoever wants to go to nationals the most will make it, and I want it."

    Stucki, who will earn a Master's degree in information systems in December, plans to return to his native Switzerland after graduating despite still having eligibility for track. But the end of his collegiate career does not mean he will stop competing. Stucki wants to continue training while working part-time in order to qualify for the cross country world championships. "Someday when I'm 40, I don't want to look back and wonder what would've happened if I trained harder," Stucki said. "I want to continue running for about two or three more years and see how far I can go."