Bob Timmons Classic Quotes

Sept. 6, 2011

Recap |

Kansas Head Coach Stanley Redwine
On the men’s team performance:
“I thought the men did a really good job today. The goal was to compete hard. For Zach Zarda to win was absolutely phenomenal. We’re really looking forward to the team to continue to get better. There are some areas were we need to improve as far as closing the gap between our one and five runners, and I think at practice we’ll get that done.”

On the women’s team performance:
“The women need to learn how to compete a little harder. That’s really all it comes down to There were opportunities within the race were we could have helped each other and that would have made a difference at the end of the race. As a team we need to compete much better in the middle of the race and hopefully our training will take care of that and we’ll be ok.”

On where the teams stand after today’s race:
“We didn’t run all of our people today and those that didn’t run we differently will need them back. For both men and women I think we looked okay today. It was our first race. There’s no reason to panic if someone didn’t do well but there’s definitely areas where we can get better.”

Junior Zach Zarda
On what differentiated this year’s meet from meets in past seasons:
“The main difference was how many guys we held out of it. We held out five of our top six runners out of this race and it was on my shoulders and a couple other guys’ shoulders to get us a win and run as a pack early.”

On what he learned about himself and the team:
“Today was a great example of how much it helps to run as a pack running those first two miles I think we stayed together pretty well and fed off each other’s energy.”

On how it feels to pick up his first collegiate individual victory:
“It feels pretty cool. I hope it continues and I can get another win at a bigger meet, hopefully this isn’t the last one I’ll pick up. I feel great though, it feels good to do this well at the home meet.”

On the position today’s victory puts he and his teammates in for the rest of the season:
“Today was really a tune up for all of us who ran. I think it was a good warm up for all of us. It was good to see where my fitness was and build some confidence as I move forward in the year.”

One if he was pleased with his individual performance:
“I’m not really putting too much emphasis on my times this year. All I was concerned with today was that we did well and won as a team and someone with a Kansas across their uniform is crossing the finish line first. That happened today so I’m happy.”

Junior Allie Marquis
On where the team stands after today’s race:
“We have a long way to go. Even though it’s our first race, it’s still our home course and I feel like we could have performed a little bit better. We had to fight through the heat today but we’ll take it.”

On if she is happy with her performance:
“I think I could have run a little bit better at the end but I think I got some confidence back today that I lost during track season last year. Confidence-wise I feel good but there’s still some room for improvement.”

On the troubles her team had competing with Oral Roberts
“They (Oral Roberts) went our pretty fast and I think mentally it kind of hurt us. We weren’t thinking this was going to be one of those races and maybe thought we were going to take it right away. We should have gone with them though.”

On the lessons the team will be able to take from today’s race:
“I went out with Cori Christensen and our hope was to try and stay together but we didn’t do a great job of that. We’ll learn from today’s race and try to do better next time.”

Assistant Coach Michael Whittlesey
On the men’s team performance:
“I thought the guys raced really well. We got out as a group and had a nice pack, which is what we wanted. I thought we competed really well across the board. I thought each of our guys fought really hard to compete in the groups they were in. I was really pleased with their effort all the way through.”

On Zach Zarda’s performance:
“He ran a really nice race and a smart race. Some guys on the other teams were pressing on our guys and I think he did a good job of staying controlled. I really liked his leadership today. You could tell he was really running within himself and doing what it took to win the race and lead the guys to the team victory.”

On the women’s team performance:
“We’re not where we wanted to be. The top three got out together put the pace got pushed more then we wanted. We talked about when the other team makes a move we have to be ready to respond to them and I don’t think we did that today. I thought there were moments in the race were a lot of them didn’t continue to compete all the way through and we need to be a lot tougher than we were today.”