Collegiate Times

sammydow_center

Early in women's cross-country runner Sammy Dow's college career, she is beginning to show considerable talent.

Last year Dow placed 59th out of 110 runners at the Atlantic Coast Conference championships with a 6K time of 22:34.

At the Virginia Tech Alumni Invitational, Dow placed 15th out of 93 runners, coming up with another solid race early in the season.

But success isn't anything new to the sophomore distance runner.

She only began to run competitively in eighth grade, but Dow managed to obtain All-State and All-American honors in her four years running at Midlothian High School in Midlothian, Va.

She collected All-State honors while running in the 1000m, mile and two-mile races at Virginia's state championships. Her high school 4xMile relay team placed first at the Nike Indoor Nationals landing her All-American honors as well.

At Tech, she plans to continue her trend of success, and her coach believes she can.

"The ACC is easily the best conference for women's distance running," cross country coach Ben Thomas said. "For a freshman to come in and get in the top half is a very good start."

Coach Thomas described Dow as "positive, hard-working, and committed" and has expectations of her continued success and improvement.

A top runner in the ACC has both skill and experience.

"You want to do your workouts right, you don't want to go out too fast and end up dying at the end," Dow said. "You want to pace yourself."

Dow sets lofty yet attainable goals for herself. This season, she is aiming for a top-20 finish at the ACC championships coming up on Oct. 31 in Cary, N.C. In the future, she is looking to qualify for NCAA nationals.

At the Virginia Tech Cross-Country Relay, Dow and fellow sophomore teammate Lauren Pinkston finished in third place out of 27 runners. Pinkston finished 69th at the ACC championships last year and is also one of Tech's top runners.

It will be crucial to the team's success for the younger runners like Dow and Pinkston to run well. "These guys are sophomores we're counting on," coach Thomas said.

After suffering an injury at the beginning of indoor season last year, Dow was sidelined for the entire spring track season. This fall, she knocked off about 30 seconds from her 6K time to make up for lost time.

"It's too late once you get here to whip yourself into shape," Thomas said. "It's easy to go home and work your summer when everything is going well. When you had to sit out all spring it's a little harder. It tells me (Dow's) got the mindset that it takes, whether you're really talented or not you have to have that mindset to be competitive in the ACC.

"You have to do your best work even when nobody's watching. You'll go and get it done. Sammy I feel really has that."

Dow has come far but will need to further cut her 6K time to be a top-20 ACC finisher.

While not a perfect comparison, the runner who placed 20th in the ACC's last year recorded a time of 21:27. That would leave Sammy with at least 30 seconds left to cut between now and the end of October.

"With continued hard work nothing is out of her reach," Thomas said. "(Sammy) is not afraid to lay it on the line."