Wolverine Athlete Spotlight: Mason Ferlic
10/1/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Cross Country
Oct. 1, 2015
Fifth-year senior Mason Ferlic is in his third season as a captain for the Maize and Blue. His leadership can be seen from observing just one practice with the U-M team, and his accomplishments speak for themselves; among them, he is Michigan's first back-to-back cross country All-American in a decade, a two-time Big Ten champion on the track and a two-time Capital One Academic All-American. After a grueling season last year that started in August with cross country season and ended in late June with the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, Ferlic needed to re-evaluate his training cycle for this, his final season. As a result, he is making his season debut with U-M's varsity lineup this weekend at the Louisville Classic (Oct. 3). He recently sat down with MGoBlue.com to discuss his evaluation of the team to this point, the rationale behind his late start to the cross season, and his eagerness to get back on the course with his teammates.
On his eagerness to get back on the course and lace the spikes up this weekend ... "I am really excited. I have had some great training with the guys on this team and I chose to wait to open up just with respect to how my track season ended. I went longer than a lot of the guys on the team, running NCAA's and USA's. I spent five weeks traveling around Europe, and that pushed things farther back as well. The decision to wait was based on how I want to approach the season and what I wanted to do at the end of the season. I am just excited to get back out there with the guys. They have been grinding for a long time, since the middle of the summer. They have looked really good; in the beginning they were running my legs off in workouts and now I finally feel caught up to them. I can't wait to race together with them. We are looking good and this is sort of the 'real' start of the season."
On whether or not he feels his and Coach Sullivan's plan to keep him on the shelf for the first month of the season has paid off, in terms of physical fitness and rest ... "I feel great. Honestly, the past couple of weeks have been some of the best chunks of training I've had. It was a collaborative decision with Sully that we wanted to focus on three important meets: Big Tens, Regionals and NCAA's. Evaluating the season last year, we made some tweaks, and one of those was pushing the race rhythm back. Even though Louisville (this weekend) is not the most important race on the schedule -- or even Wisconsin (in two weeks), you know, we aren't winning trophies at those races -- but it still gets you into a race rhythm and the longer I can delay getting to that point in the cycle, the better it is for me. It allows me to arrive at the postseason with more energy and a better physical and mental cycle. There are some psychological benefits there."
On what has impressed him most about this year's roster having been a participant and an observer to this point in the year ... "I am just amazed at how determined everyone is this year. These guys are running harder than they ever have; they have more focus than there has ever been, and we have a huge sense of purpose and something to prove. This year has been really exciting. We are treating every day like professionals with a big-picture mentality but we also have the ability to have day-to-day focus. We are just at a great point. I think we have all the personnel to be successful and we aren't going to put numbers on it yet because the season really hasn't started but I think we can do big things this year. Realistically, we can hit every goal we want. Whether that is a top-10 finish at nationals or a Big Ten Championship; it's all within our reach."
• Previous Spotlight: Connor Mora
Communications Contact: Chad Shepard
Players Mentioned
