JULIA LORELLI | STAFF REPORTER | jlorelli@butler.edu
‘Welcome to the Team’ is a Q&A series where the Collegian sits down with first-year student-athletes who are entering their first season at Butler University. These articles will address why they chose Butler, what they hope to get out of this season and some personal tidbits that you won’t find anywhere else.
This week, sports reporter Julia Lorelli sat down with three first-years who are running for Butler’s men’s track team: Kyle Grove, Charlie Jones and Brendan Thomas.
Kyle Grove is a distance runner from Carmel, Indiana. Photo courtesy of Butler Athletics.
THE BUTLER COLLEGIAN: When did you start running?
KYLE GROVE: I started running in seventh grade, so I would have been about 13 years old. I did it as a way of staying in shape for other sports that I was doing at the time, like baseball and basketball. I didn’t really think much of it, but I really enjoyed the first few times that I did it. I really liked the community, the guys on the team and the team spirit that they had. It was also something I was naturally pretty decent at.
TBC: What made running stick out from basketball and baseball?
KG: [The team spirit] definitely did. It was more of an encouraging environment. It was definitely less cutthroat and opinionated than the other sports like baseball and basketball were. You ran for your team, and not necessarily just yourself and liked individual performances, which I liked.
TBC: What is your favorite distance to run and why?
KG: My favorite distance to run is the 5k and 10k; the longer the better for me. In high school, my best events were the 5k in cross country and the two-mile in track. I really like those distances because they see who’s the strongest and who can last when it gets really difficult.
TBC: Is there an athlete that you look up to?
KG: I look up to a lot of the current American distance runners like Cole Hocker, Grant Fisher and other Olympians who have really set the standard for what it means to be a phenomenal athlete. They’ve really pushed themselves to their boundaries. They’re incredibly talented, but they’ve put in so much work to get to the position that they’re at, and it really shows off when they’re getting medals at the Olympics.
TBC: What is your favorite food, and why?
KG: It’s gonna seem a little stereotypical from being a runner, but probably just pasta, because it’s a great thing to eat before competitions. Specifically, I love my dad’s chicken pesto that he makes. It just never fails. It’s always good.
Charlie Jones is a distance runner from the United Kingdom. Photo by Jonathan Wang.
TBC: When did you start running?
CHARLIE JONES: I started running a couple of years ago, competitively, and ever since then, it’s kind of got better and better as I got older.
TBC: Why did you decide to start running?
CJ: It was mainly to keep in shape for my other sports. I used to play rugby and field hockey. When I was younger in school I was always pretty good at it, winning the local school races. My teacher at school entered me in a couple of local races, and it went well.
TBC: What made running stand out from rugby and field hockey?
CJ: You’re gonna get the results eventually. In something like rugby or field hockey, a lot comes down to a coach, and you might be putting in less work, but you might not be performing because of the position the coach puts you in. You have more power to succeed in running than you do in other sports.
TBC: Why did you decide to come to Butler from the UK?
CJ: Butler’s had a really strong history of distance runners, especially from the UK. Athletes such as Callum Hawkins have come to Butler and then ended up going to the Olympics in the future. Also the head coach, Coach [Matt] Roe [was a deciding factor].
TBC: What was the biggest culture shock coming to America from the UK?
CJ: Probably the food portion size. I went to Dairy Queen, and I didn’t know what it was, so I just ordered the same as one of my teammates. I got medium ice cream, and it was absolutely massive compared to back home.
TBC: What is your favorite sweet treat? And why?
CJ: Probably some good quality chocolate. Back home I think it’s a lot nicer than here. I actually brought some back with me when I went home for Christmas because I couldn’t have any of the Hershey’s stuff. It was just way too sweet.
Brendan Thomas is a distance runner from Easton, Massachusetts. Photo by Jonathan Wang.
TBC: When did you start running?
BRENDAN THOMAS: I started running in my freshman year of high school. I got into it because [my mom] wanted us all to play three sports year-round. I wanted to play soccer, and I couldn’t play football. I also played baseball.
TBC: What made track stand out from the other sports?
BT: Freshman year [I did] cross country. I was half decent at it, and then I didn’t want to play basketball. I did indoor track, and the guys on my high school team convinced me to quit baseball because I had a brighter future [with track].
TBC: Why did you decide to run distance?
BT: From my sports background and soccer, I could run for a pretty long time. I just couldn’t really sprint fast, so I thought distance was really my calling.
TBC: Do you have a favorite distance to run?
BT: Right now, I really like the 5k. I think it fits my best. But I think in the future, [I’ll run] longer distances.
TBC: Is there an athlete that you look up to?
BT: I look up to Yared Nuguse. He was a big influence for me throughout high school. He was a miler, but he was one of the big distance names that I knew when I started running. I always admired [him].
TBC: What made you decide to come to Butler from Massachusetts?
BT: It was really just the coaches and the team atmosphere. I met a lot of my best friends and we had a really tight group back home. One of the big things when I was looking for school was just a team that was really close to each other, and I think I found that here. Roe seemed like a really good coach when I was talking to him, he seemed to know what he was doing, and he’s one of the best coaches for the 10k in the NCAA. He was one of the best coaches that I was talking to. It was in my best interest to come here if I wanted to do something with my career.
TBC: Would you rather live in space or underwater, and why?
BT: Probably underwater because there’s more to do there [than] in outer space. [Space] is kind of this empty space, [but] you got reefs and you got animals underwater.
