Dipre, Symoniak shine at Nationals
Tony Dipre: I was pretty confident that I was going to make it. I made it last year so I knew I could do it. My expectations all year were to do my best so I could make it to Nationals.
Mia Symoniak: I can’t say I was expecting it going into the meet. There was a girl from Denison who I thought would try and hit the qualifier too. So I was really just planning on going out and sticking with her. I ended up really surprising myself and I was really excited with it.
TD: I was pretty happy with it. I mean, we’re very thin. And we don’t have a full team as a lot of teams in conference do. We don’t have any competitors in some events. Still, to hold up and get third was pretty impressive.
MS: I was really happy with the way the team did at conferences. I don’t think anybody was really expecting anything of us. Actually, I was standing by the results table and there were these two girls standing there saying, “Where did Allegheny come from? Why are they doing so well?” Nobody really expects anything from us during indoor. I think we really surprised a couple of teams.
TD: The way the National meet works is they have this holding area for the competitors. It’s removed from the track. I guess I planned to still stick to the same routine as always. Headphones on, zone out, and stay as relaxed as possible.
MS: It’s definitely nerve-wracking. Standing in there, watching all these other girls warm up around you. But it’s exciting at the same time. I couldn’t wait to get out on the track and get going.
TD: On Friday were prelims. The idea was just to relax, make sure you get in. Once that was accomplished on the first day, in the final race, I found myself in the lead right off the gun. Not something I expected and not something I really wanted to do. I led for 1200 meters of the race until I got passed by the eventual winner. Not how I wanted the race to work out, but, I mean, it still worked out pretty well.
MS: [The race] went out a lot faster than I have ever gone out in a race before. I actually ended up setting a 3k personal record in the middle of the race. So I knew that it was really fast. I guess I just kept telling myself to hold on for as long as I could.
TD: It was kind of bittersweet. It was nice in the fact that I was like, ‘Wow, I’m third in the country right now. This is pretty exciting.’ It was also kind of like, ‘Ugh, I was kind of planning on winning this race.’
MS: I’m not completely happy with the way it turned out. But I’m happy with the way that I went after the race. Last year at outdoor nationals I feel like the brunt of the race got away from me at the very beginning. This year I went after it.
TD: [This is] probably right up there as one of the best. All-American is pretty exciting. To have one of the higher finishes in Allegheny history… it’s one of top two experiences for me, the other one being first time [receiving] All-American in cross country.