MALE
Charlie Allen, Columbus North senior cross-country runner
Allen won the Brown County Regional in 16 minutes, 10 seconds for 5,000 meters (3.1 miles) to lead the Bull Dogs to the team title.
His performance last week: “I’m really happy with it. I felt really good going into the race and through the first mile, and after the second mile, I felt really good. I was right with the three Jennings County kids, and then I made a surge right after the 2-mile and luckily dropped them.”
Do you do anything special to prepare? “Every time before a big race, three hours before, I’ll have 500 calories of oatmeal with peanut butter and banana. I feel like if I don’t have that, then I’m definitely not prepared mentally and physically.”
Favorite drink: “Water”
Favorite food: “Hawaiian pizza”
Favorite book: “Where the Sidewalk Ends”
Favorite class: “Math”
Role model: “Steve Prefontaine”
Best advice: “Work hard, and it pays off.”
Athletics goal: “I’d like to be All-State this year.”
If you could travel anywhere: “New York City. It’s really pretty, and I just want to go there, and I think it would be fun to ride a bike around New York City.”
FEMALE
Arig Tong, Columbus North senior cross-country runner
Tong won the Brown County Regional in 19 minutes for 5,000 meters (3.1 miles) to lead the Bull Dogs to the team title.
Her performance last week: “I feel that I gave a strong performance, but I think that with more pressure moving up to semistate that I will do better because there will be more teams and more competition.”
Do you do anything special to prepare? “I actually like to not focus on the meet until right before racing, because if I think about it too much, I start to worry about all the things that could happen during the race. So I like to relax before the meet.”
Favorite drink: “Tropical Smoothie”
Favorite food: “Ice cream”
Favorite book: “’House Rules’ by Jodi Piccoult”
Favorite class: “Drawing and painting”
Role model: “Barack Obama”
Best advice: “To give your best effort, and if you give your best, that’s all that matters.”
Athletics goal: “To place in top 25 at state and make All-State.”
If you could travel anywhere: “The Amazon (rainforest), because it seems cool.”
