My story and background
If you’re on this site, odds are you know a little about me. But, if you wanted to know a little more, you’ve come to the right place. This page chronicles all my personal, professional, and athletic endeavors.
I was born & raised in Council Grove, a small town of about 2,000 in east-central Kansas surrounded by prairie land & gravel roads. I lived 40 miles from the nearest Walmart or McDonald’s, and 1 mile from the lake, and I liked it that way. The community was extremely supportive of me, and I always enjoy spending time there. And honestly, it has more good running spots than pretty much anywhere. Council Grove is by no means a utopia, but if you put it down often enough, we won’t be friends long. I love that place as much as any.
I’m a pretty analytical person, and I typically do more thinking than talking. My highs aren’t too high, and my lows aren’t too low. In bigger groups I’ll fade to the background, so if you really want to have a conversation, I’m at my best in a 1-on-1. I embrace technology, but also reject it in an old-fashioned grampa type of way. For example, I haven’t been on Instagram since before covid, but I also made this website from scratch. I still read the newspaper but as a PDF on my computer. I’m also a very disciplined person. If you are going to do something, you ought to do it to the best of your ability.
My top interest is running. Aside from actually running, I enjoy the planning aspect of it and experimenting with training. I also enjoy all levels of the sport as a fan. Aside from that, I love college football, specifically K-State and the rest of their sports. My other hobbies pale in comparison to those two, but I enjoy most active & outdoor activities.
I attended Council Grove for all thirteen years of school. We had one elementary, one middle, and one high school. During the summers of high school, I worked at the nearby summer camp as a counselor. I’d spend nearly the entire summer there, including nights & weekends. During the school year, I was involved in various sports & clubs. Starting in 6th grade, I also spent a lot of time volunteering at school events (mostly sports, but not always) as an announcer.
After graduating high school, I went to the University of Wyoming to study Astrophysics. I’d had a good physics teacher in high school and had always excelled in science & math. The classes were challenging, but not overwhelming. I soon learned that despite being a “cool” and “smart” area of study, the job opportunities weren’t all that interesting. So I explored other paths: media, geography, economics, and kinesiology. It was the latter that caught my interest the most, and when my freshman year was up, I transferred to Emporia State and changed my major.
At ESU, my major was Health & Human Performance. I also pursued a minor in coaching. During the school year, I was a tutor for Anatomy, Physiology, Chemistry, and Nutrition (along with running track & XC). During the summers, I worked at Manhattan Running Company, a running specialty retail store & race management company. MRC was the perfect retail job for me, and the knowledge & experience from that job still come in handy.
During the fall of my senior year, I coached cross country at Chase County High School as a part of my coaching minor. I had 9 girls, 4 boys, and 3 7th grade boys. That season was a blast, writing their training, running with the team, and even hosting the regional meet. I also was tasked with digging up the program history and building a school record board. At the end of the season, our girls team even qualified for state for the first time ever. Our boys didn't have a team, but we qualified our top individual. Almost everyone PR'd at state and I wouldn't trade that season for anything.
To complete my degree at Emporia St, I needed an internship after my senior year. I applied and was accepted to a strength & conditioning internship at the SPIRE Institute, which is a private sports academy outside of Cleveland, Ohio. It had a rocky start. The guy who hired me resigned, and the new manager, Bobby, didn’t know I was coming. We figured it out, though, and Bobby became a great mentor for me. He found my tech skills to be especially useful, and suggested that I pursue a master’s degree in the computer science field, rather than going deeper into the exercise field. So, that’s exactly what I did.
I was accepted into the Data Analytics master’s program at Northwest Missouri. My coding skills were rusty, and the content was wildly different from my health classes. I managed the transition well, though, and finished the program in 2 years while also running track and XC. During the summer between years, I returned to SPIRE and worked a handful of different jobs.
After completing my master’s degree, I accepted a position as the Sport Science Marketing Manager at COROS, a sportwatch company. I didn’t know much about marketing, but I knew quite a bit about sport science. It was another transition that took time to figure out, but after about 6 months, I found my footing and have been building up my corner of the company ever since.
While my first “real” race was in 2012, the story of course starts long before that. Like most kids, my parents had me doing every sport available when I was young. My sister and I ran a few youth meets when I was 6-8 years old. It wasn’t a part of any club, but was enough of an introduction to both running and field events. Around the same time, Dad started serious training again, eventually running the Boston Marathon in ’09. At school field days, I always chose the longest event possible (either 100m or 400m), competing with (and always losing to) my friend Branton Tischhauser.
My first experience with an organized running team was middle school cross country in 7th grade. Council Grove MS & HS trained together and had the same first-year coach, Josh Gant. I spent a few weeks at the end of summer getting ready, eventually running a mile (probably for the first time in my life), and then getting that mile to around 8 minutes. When I ran 6:50 for my first race (in 103-degree heat), I honestly thought it was a mistake. That day I learned how much racing can bring out of you. I was competitive that day, and got 2nd. At the end of the season, I finished 2nd at the league meet. I learned a lot that year, and looked up to our top HS runner, who had a PR of 20:09. (Little did we know, the standard for ‘good’ would be raised quite a bit in the coming years.) I had two teammates, Alvin & Carson, who both would become 6-year runners at Council Grove with me.
In the spring of 7th grade, I joined the middle school track team. The first meet, I ran the 800m for the first time, placing 3rd. The strong kick I had in the final 200 (and the medal) convinced me that this would be my race. I don’t remember much else from this season, other than that I got my mile time down to 6:09. The first 800 was the only individual medal I got that season, but our 4x400 relay got a few as well.
8th Grade XC came with a lot more excitement. The HS teams were much-improved (both boys & girls ended up sneaking into state), and I was excited to move up to the 2-mile distance. A new teammate, Brent, came out this year and was a good competitor for me in practice. I started off okay, but really made my breakthrough at the home meet. I ran 12:06 and got 2nd to Rider Nettleton from Osage City, a guy I had chased (and never beat) throughout all of middle school. Two weeks later, I ran the race of my life to beat him by 1 second and win the league. To this day, I’ve only been able to dig that deep one other time.
For 8th Grade track, I ran the 3200, 800, and 4x400 at nearly every meet. I never managed to match my XC times in the 3200, but found more success in the 800. Mid-season, I won my first track race at Lyndon. However, Branton Tischhauser (the friend who always beat me) wasn’t in the race. We agreed to divide our talents, him racing the 1600 and me racing the 3200. The next week, though, we clashed in the 800. I had no expectations of beating him, but it came down to a kick at the end and I ended up winning the whole race (partially fueled by wanting to stick it to of all our teammates who were cheering against me at the end). Of course, we then turned around and teamed up on the 4x400, which was much improved this year. We added Sam early in the year, but were still missing a good 4th piece. At Riley County, I took the baton in last place (thanks to our slow teammate) and handed off in first (much to the amazement of my grandparents, who had never seen me run before). We found our 4th piece, Treyse, in time for league, where we set the meet record to end the season.
Heading into High School XC, there was a lot of buzz around the team. They were incredibly lucky to have made state the year before, but brought back the #2, 3, and 4 runners: Daniel, Jaxon, and Travis. I was excited to join them, and we had a huge addition with Branton coming out for the first time. Daniel was a great leader, and we always had fun at practice. We won the first meat easily, and competed for the team titles at almost every meet, winning League and Regionals along the way. I was typically our 4th or 5th runner, but had a relatively poor performance at state and didn’t score. Our team did well, though, and finished 6th.
I didn’t run track my freshman year (I played baseball), so the next season was Sophomore XC. This was without a doubt the most fun I’ve ever had on a team. We brought everyone back from the year before, and our culture had attracted a few more friends to join the team. The squad was deep, everyone was welcome, and we all had fun & worked hard. We often threw a football around on long runs or played tag on the warm ups (Jaxon even chased a butterfly for two blocks once). We were a crazy group, but Coach Gant somehow managed to keep us focused. We won 4 meets and lost 3 during the regular season. Riley County was our biggest rival, beating us at regionals to even the season record at 2-2. At state, we placed 3rd. It was the highest finish in school history, and the first top-3 finish for Council Grove in any sport in 30 years.
After state XC, a switch flipped for me. I was bought-in on running, ran in the winter, and decided to run track in addition to playing baseball. It was a unique experience, only showing up to track practice twice the whole season. Baseball was the primary sport, so I only missed baseball practice for track meets. Most of my training came after baseball and before homework. I only saw the coach at meets, so Dad and I handled all of the training. The 800 was my focus, and I came out the gate swinging. With no seed time, I was forced into the slow heat at the first meet, won the heat by 200m, and got 2nd overall. The rest of the season was fairly uneventful, I ran a lot of 800s and 4x800s, along with two 1600s. At regionals, I ran 2:07, but missed out on a bid to state as it was the toughest region.
Hype for the team was at an all-time high to start the season. There were a few struggles in replacing Daniel as the leader, but the culture for the most part stayed intact. We were dominant, winning 6 meets and getting 2nd in the other two. I won the first meet, and Travis & I went 1-2 at the last regular season meet. At regionals, we destroyed everyone without Branton, and were expecting another trophy at state. That didn’t become a reality, though. We all came out flat, averaging over a minute slower than expected. It was a tough ending to what was otherwise a great season. (The biggest what-if is Branton’s freak injury of stepping in a hole at Osage City. If that doesn’t happen, I believe he wins that race and becomes our #1, totally altering the trajectory of this season & the next.)
This was my first experience with indoor track. Kansas doesn’t have a sanctioned season, so everything is unattached/club meets. I ran 3 meets, and did everything I could to learn from local superstar Kyler True (1:49 800m) and his coach, Tom Camien. In those days there was no way of knowing how people trained, you had to go up and ask.
The spring was extremely busy. I played at every Varsity and JV baseball game, along with track. I also had an afternoon weights class and a “teacher’s aide” gym class that was really just an early start on baseball practice. That meant most of my track workouts came after 2+ hours of activity at school and a double-header on the diamond. There was also no distance coach, so Dad & I were on our own for training. I got 1st or 2nd in every 800 all season, and 5th at state with a 2:04. I also ran the mile a few times and ran on some relays. Our 4x4 was good, but late-season injuries cost us a trip to state.
In my final XC season for Council Grove, I really wanted to avenge the previous year’s loss at state lead the team to another trophy. Unfortunately, though, our culture had peaked. Guys that had seen success got complacent and didn’t run over the summer, and too many new faces just wanted the fun aspect without the hard work. It became playtime more than practice for most, and I ended up on my own for nearly every workout. I had a good amount of individual success, medaling in every meet and even winning at The Orchard. The team won our early-season meets and extended our League streak to 5 years at the Tallgrass Prairie, but never reached our potential and got 8th at state. Individually, I got 14th at state and set the school record by 0.4 seconds. It was a strange year, as my time would have been top-5 in each of the previous 3 years. It was no outlier, though; rather the front end of the running boom that would push the sport forward over the next decade.
This spring was the most successful stint of running I have ever had. My baseball days were behind me, and I had one goal: Win the 800m State Championship. Every tiny detail was tracked, every workout carefully planned, and I never missed a stretch or recovery session. There was again no coach, and since I was now practicing before Dad got off work, I was in charge of my own training.
I stayed sharp with 5 indoor meets, and took it to another level outdoor. I went 11-1 in the regular season, only losing on a tactical mistake in the Mile to Brett Kulp of Riley County. I learned from that loss and used it to beat my league rival Dallin for the first time a week later. Our 4x4 team lacked depth, but I had a lot of fun anchoring, and even won a race on a dive, splitting 51.9. At regionals, I trailed briefly in the 800 for the first time all season, but pulled away to win comfortably. I chose against running the mile to put all my marbles into winning the 800 at state.
At state, I started near the back. It wasn’t my normal style, but I had studied my competition and was racing smart. I moved up to 4th at the bell and took the lead with 200 to go. I held off one challenger, and then another appeared on my other side. It was a photo finish, and I lost by 0.001 seconds. Never in my life have I been crushed like that. To put everything toward a single goal and lose it like that, it took a long time to recover. The winner was later awarded Kansas HS Athlete of the Year for all sports.
When I graduated, I chose the University of Wyoming for academic reasons. However, I was also in talks with the XC coach about a tryout. After losing the state championship, they pulled that opportunity. I joined the club XC Ski team and quickly realized that I didn’t care about other sports as much as I loved running. So I trained halfheartedly and knew I wasn’t where I needed to be. I also explored changing my major, so I wasn’t tied to UW for academics anymore, either. I looked at a handful of schools, but Emporia State was the only one that showed any interest in picking me up, so I made the decision to transfer there.
I was excited to be back on a team, and I had high hopes for lots of progress under college training. It had a… unique start with the team camp (long story, ask me about it). But we had some bonding experiences and it looked like a good start. After that, it was a lot of up and down. The team had a lot of egos, not a lot of brains, and honestly we weren’t very competitive. The upperclassmen seemed more interested in tearing their teammates down than building themselves up. It was kind of a mess, but I was top 7 all season. Unfortunately, Coach made the decision not to run me at regionals despite this, and my season ended early.
ESU track was a completely different environment than XC. Everyone was much more welcoming and supportive. Unfortunately we all practiced at different times, so I was still with the XC team most days. My 800m teammate, Murad, was supportive and cared about my development, though, which was much appreciated. I steadily improved that season, and broke 2:00 for the first time at NW Missouri in February. After that, a foot injury popped up and I barely made it through the conference meet. Then COVID hit and outdoor was cancelled. The mysterious foot injury stuck around for a while, and it was July before I got back to full mileage.
The second year of ESU XC was worse than the first. There were almost daily arguments among the team, and it didn’t help that we weren’t allowed to practice half the time (let alone race) due to pandemic restrictions. We had a few intrasquad races, though, where I won a mile race and PR’d in the 5K. Then, that mysterious foot injury popped back up. The rehab was tough and often painful, with no visible progress. It was some inexplicable swelling around a nerve and flared up randomly. It lingered through indoor and the doctors never figured it out.
You thought that was rock bottom? Keep digging. In the spring, the daily arguments turned into straight up verbal abuse & bullying. I was the oldest of the middle-distance group, and I took countless tongue-lashings for standing up for my younger guys. The XC coaches just stood by and watched. I later found out they wanted me to quit from the beginning. (Secure funding for a big roster, get guys to quit, and have more money to use on the smaller roster). One of my teammates knowingly gave me COVID, and another drank out of my water bottle when he had Mono. So, with the lingering effects of both, I was sent out to get last in every race all season. At the end of the year, I went into the coach’s office and said I’d quit if the bullying problem wasn’t stopped. He said something along the lines of not being able to kick off half the team, and I told him “well, then your good half will just quit”, and left.
The relief of getting away from the ESU team was incredible. My foot also magically healed within a few days. (We determined it to be a physical manifestation of the emotional stress from the toxic team. My body associated it with running, so it stopped me from running in an attempt to stop the emotional stress.) I certainly wasn’t giving up running, so I decided to train myself and run unattached. I had studied enough training theory and nearly won a state championship coaching myself, so I was pretty confident I’d figure it out. I also took on an assistant coaching gig for Chase County, a small rival school to Council Grove. (That was a blast, full details on the “Professional” story.) That fall, I ran more mileage than I’d ever done before, was more consistent, and PR’d over 2mi, 5K, 8K, and Half Marathon. In the 8K race, I beat all but 3 of the ESU runners.
During indoor track, I continued my hot streak. I set PR’s in the 5K, Mile, and 800, and got a bit of a reputation for doubling back for more races (I was getting the most out of my entry fees). For outdoor, I adopted the name “Tallgrass Track Club” because it sounded better than “Unattached”. I had spent a lot of time at the Tallgrass Prairie as the coach at Chase County (it was their home course), and it remains one of my favorite running spots. I battled a lot of wind that season, but finally broke through with a windy 1:56 at K-State. Six days later at Last Chance, I hit the perfect evening and ran 1:55, a faster time than any of ESU’s 800m runners that season.
After the successful year on my own, I fully intend to continue. In fact, I had plans with 5 others that had quit the team to enter as a club at the first XC meet and beat ESU. I had put out some inquiries to coaches at graduate schools I was interested in, and somehow was offered a spot to run for Northwest Missouri, a highly successful team in the same conference as Emporia. I really liked the coach (Wick Cunningham), and chose to take one more crack at being on a team. Summer training was going excellent until two weeks before the season, when I had some nasty pain in my ankle. The doctor immediately called it a stress reaction and prescribed six weeks in a boot.
After about 10 days I said “screw this, I’m not hurt” and started running again. It was not a stress fracture, and I ended up arriving at my new school healthy, but hadn’t run in two weeks. Everyone kinda thought I sucked at first, but I was confident I’d come around. The team had egos reminiscent of ESU, but they were strong & confident rather than fragile & insecure. It took a while, but I re-learned to enjoy XC teammates. Late in the season, I found my footing, ran a 30-second 8K PR, and followed it up with strong races at conference and regionals.
Coming off an excellent XC season, I was excited to hit the track. I stayed for winter break to train in our 300m indoor facility, and crushed workout after workout. Before any races in January, though, we flew too close to the sun, took one too few recovery days, and my CNS was fried. We realized it when I ran 2:03 at the first meet instead of 1:53 like we anticipated. I could run at 90% in practice, but when it came time, 90% was all I had. We tried all kinds of stuff to reboot things, but nothing seemed to work. It was bad race after bad race for months. Confidence plummeted, and impostor syndrome set in. Did I actually belong on such a high-level team? Even before that went down, I sometimes found it hard to believe I got there in the first place. The season ended with essentially nothing to show for it.
My second XC season at Northwest was my ‘senior’ season for college eligibility. Despite a great, healthy summer, things never really got going. I had a few good workouts, but never raced well. Every meet was warm & humid, but even that didn’t quite explain the lack of performance. However, it was another fun season, and it felt like I contributed. I chalked it up to a few extra pounds compared to the year before and moved on.
My last track season at Northwest was a little unbelievable. I had no confidence in making the top-3 on our team in the 800 (which would qualify me for conference), and I wanted to make the conference meet. So, I had the bright idea of becoming a decathlete. We didn’t have 3 on the team, and only 6 had finished at conference the year prior. As it turns out, I’m a horrible high jumper. So bad that the coaches were afraid I’d die if I even attempted to pole vault. However, I showed a glimmer of hope in the hurdles. We only had one 400m hurdler on the team, so it was settled: If I went all-in and stayed healthy, they’d take me to conference as a hurdler.
I studied the hurdles more than my graduate classes that spring. Film study both myself and pro’s, tracking time and steps between hurdles, and calculating exactly what I needed to do to improve. The season was a rollercoaster. I started off not knowing what I was doing. Then, I made some progress. Then, I took a huge step back and didn’t know why. I was frustrated out of my mind, but knew I’d get to my goal as long as I stayed healthy. I kept at it, and had another horrible race… but I was *this* close to figuring it out. I just needed a little extra rest. We took it, and at conference I looked like I belonged. Then, a week later at Last Chance, I put together a near-perfect race and surprised everyone (including myself). A fitting end to the most unconventional of seasons.
After graduation, I moved to Boulder, CO for work. I knew I hadn’t reached my potential in any event yet, so there was never any question that I’d continue training. The first year was a challenge, getting adapted to full-time work and new friends in a new city. Training was inconsistent, but I managed a strong 8K that first fall. After the first year, I got settled in. A minor injury over the summer set me back, but I managed strong races in the 800 and Mile at altitude. In the fall, I put together the highest mileage and most consistent season to date, and am looking to express that fitness in 2026.