Super 'Nova: An Interview with Conestoga Grad Andrew Marston

PA’s class of 2015 produced some memorable performances and fantastic times. Now, a little over a year removed from their high school days, they are producing on the big stage. Villanova’s Red Shirt freshman Andrew Marston, a graduate of Conestoga High School, has emerged as one of the historic program’s brightest young stars. He recently ran 23:50 for 7^th place overall at the Chile Pepper Festival in Arkansas and also finished 13^th at the PSU National Invitational. Before he became a collegiate stand out, Marston had an excellent high school career that made him a featured name on this site and others. He made the Top 30 of the blog’s recent XC All-Decade Team and led Conestoga to a district championship in 2015.

Andrew was gracious enough to share his high school and college experiences with our own Jarrett Felix in an awesome interview that I’m very excited to share. Best of luck to Andrew and Villanova as they head into championship season!

Jarrett Felix: How did you get your start in distance running? Was it something you immediately found success with or something that you had to work out to become great?

Andrew Marston: So I ran casually in middle school and always wanted to be the fastest kid on the playground when I was younger, but I did not take distance running too seriously until Freshman year of cross country when I decided to go out and try and make some friends and have fun with it. Starting off I was not very good, my first 5k was a 22:30 and I was very out of shape and slow, but then I had a breakout race at William Tennent in the frosh race when I won it in 17:40ish and I made top 7 that year and got to run in the district race which was awesome.

JF: In 2013, your team went from 17^th in the District to 2^nd and you personally went from 52^nd to 18^th. What was the jump like for your team? What factors do you think contributed to your big improvement as a unit?

AM: My sophomore year at Stoga was a transition year for the program I think as a whole. We had a lot of seniors exit and my coach named me the captain of the team going into that sophomore year of cross country. And as you can imagine I got some slack from the older guys on the team for getting that spot. But I took the spot really seriously and we had a good core group of guys that wanted to be better but we were so young that it took us two years to really show how good we could be. We had a lot of race experience under our belts, and most importantly Shannon Grady came in and started working with Coach Comstock on some blood lactate training for us summer going into our Junior year. That training is the real deal and really took us to the next level and along with some much needed race experience we were able to run a tight pack and finish second in the district.

JF: In 2014, your team can in with a bit more of a target on its back within the district and the state. How was being a favorite different than being an underdog? Which did you prefer if either? How did your team handle the pressure of expectation?

AM: Going into senior year cross the boys were fired up, we wanted a state chip and we made that clear from day 1. We knew we were legit and we felt underappreciated on the state scene so we really wanted to show everyone how good Stoga was. I personally loved having the target on my back, as a team we enjoyed bursting onto the scene my sophomore year and kind of staying under the radar, but I think there comes a point when you want to have the target on your back or else it means you were never good enough consistently.

JF: In 2013, you went from 18^th at districts to 9^th at states a week later. In 2014, you ran 15:40 on the Hershey course which was under the old course record. What parts of your training or racing mentality helped you have your best results in the most important meet of the season? Do you have any advice on how others should attack the Hershey course?

AM: As far as Hershey and the postseason go there are a couple things that helped me out in Hershey. I have always been pretty good on the hills and my coach and I knew that so we tried to take advantage of that whenever possible. Stoga's home course is nice and hilly and it is pretty easy to break guys on the hills so I always enjoyed using hills to my advantage. I think hillier courses helped me out and I think any good distance runner has the same kind of motto that I always think about, which is something like "just don’t be soft" and you will do just fine. Every race I went out hard enough to be up front and put myself in a position where I could succeed. I never wanted to finish a race thinking "I should've been up front earlier so I wouldn’t have missed that move". I mean in general on the Hershey course I would say to guys just run the downhills as fast as possible, and work the hills top to bottom.

JF: You had a lot of awesome achievements during your high school career both on the trails and the track. What would you say is/are your favorite memories from your high school running career?

AM: My favorite high school memory is definitely the night before states cross, we had a team meeting in the hotel just the 8 of us guys. And as a group I just wouldn’t have rather toed the line with 6 other guys, I had no doubt in my mind those boys would be grinding away for that state chip. When you have a group like that it’s something special.

JF: How did you decide on Villanova for your college selection? What was the recruiting process like?

AM: The recruiting process was a good one, also pretty stressful, but my top 3 choices were narrowed down to Virginia, Villanova, and Cornell. I then kind of narrowed it down to Virginia and Nova from there and it kinda got to the point where I was thinking to myself "If I have the chance to don the historic blue and white id be crazy not to take it". Just such a historic program and Marcus and Carberry made it so easy for me, their approach to recruiting is refreshing and empowering.

JF: What has the transition been like from high school to college in both running and away from the sport? What has been like training with guys like Casey Comber and Paul Power who were something of high school rivals and are now teammates/friends?

AM: Transitioning to College has been really fun and pretty easy. Marcus made it easy on us freshman by redshirting us so we get the year to race adjust to the training and just school and social life. As far as school goes things haven’t been too tough and it is nice to have plenty of opportunities for tutors or whatever help you may need. As far as the boys go man it has been fun to get to know Casey and Paul. Those guys are some real competitors and in high school I was never really friendly with anyone else because I did not like talking to my competition, but Casey and I got along really quick and ended up rooming together freshman year. Really though at this point it is funny how far off racing against them feels like it was. Every now and again we joke about Paul going out quick in the 32 at districts or something like that but we really have developed some tight bonds and toeing the ling with those guys is such a privilege.

JF: What was the first year like redshirting a lot of the big meets? Was it hard to stay patient in the process?

AM: Redshirting was the right thing to do but it definitely did test your patience at times. I wanted nothing more than to throw on that uni and jump out there with those guys, but I understood that I would need the year to adjust to the increase in volume of training and just the college life in general. I will say the redshirt year made me really hungry for this year cross, it had been on my mind for a while haha.

JF: This season you have had a ton of success as one of Villanova’s top runners. What pieces of your training and mentality of helped you take the next step?

AM: Above all I contribute my success this year to the men on the team. I cannot ask for a better leader for the squad then pat, he has taught me a lot leading verbally and by example. He has put me in my place a couple times and told me how it is. In my HS career I have never had a leadership figure that was not a coach to look toward on my team so having a guy like pat who has seen it all means a lot. Seeing the older guys on the team this year and last year has allowed me to follow in the right footsteps and just be ready to roll come race time. Obviously Marcus is the man and really knows what he is doing and not only that but his patient approach really helps me because he really has kept my "let’s do it all right now" attitude at bay. Another obvious reason is the guys I am training around, I mean coming from being the best runner on your team or region or state or whatever it may be, to not even being the best runner in your dorm room (Casey Comber ;)) is a cool feeling and really allows us to grow together. As far as running fast goes I always thought we got the best training out there, also I try and sleep a lot, taking your easy days easy, and being aggressive on race day.

JF: What have been some of your favorite moments/races of collegiate XC so far?

AM: Favorite Collegiate XC moment so far would have to be racing down in Chile Pepper in Arkansas coming around to the home stretch. You pretty much do two laps on this xc course and you do nearly a 180 degree turn to the finish at one point and I was going around the field approach the sharp turn trying to snag as many extra points as possible, and I saw Marcus and I was in the hurt box at this point really wondering if the dogs were coming behind me, and if I was gonna be able to hold them off, and Marcus was yelling "just get to the hairpin turn and your home!" and I was hurting so bad, but I finished well and seeing the clock at sub 24 minutes was pretty awesome.

JF: What are your future goals for the sport? What about your future goals for after college if you have any just yet?

AM: I really love running and I don’t love anything else as much outside of the Philadelphia Eagles so the plan is to run as long as possible. I would love to represent my country at one point in my career, but that is still a ways off so for now in college, I really want to get this nova team to Nats.

JF: Lastly, do you still follow along with any Conestoga results? If so, what have you thought of the team’s results and their recent successes at Paul Short and Central League?

AM: I always stay in touch with Stoga results and man they are looking strong. Carlos Shultz is the real deal, I remember he would jog around our practice waiting for his sisters to finish up and he has been running since he was a young kid so I really think he is the real deal. They have a really solid core group of kids and Jake Robinson and Henry Borska are awesome kids with great attitudes that I had the privilege of running with a couple of times over the summer. They looked pretty good at their meets so far and me and some of the guys from my graduating class have been chatting about this squad a lot. Really hoping they can get to states this year. If not I think they are a couple pieces away from a very good team next year.