Flo50 Boys Team Rankings: No. 3 Carmel

3.

Top 2016 Team Finish: 7th NXN Midwest

Head Coach: Colin Altevogt

Top Returner: Ben Miller

Analysis: The guys from Carmel didn't make it to NXN last year, but they come back with one of the strongest squads around. They return six of their top seven and all of their top five. This year they should really make a splash in the Midwest region. Last year they finished seventh in the region and second in the Indiana state meet. 

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Carmel (Indiana) High head coach Colin Altevogt answered a few questions about his upcoming season. See his answers below.

1. How long have you been a Coach? How many of those years have been at your current school?

Ten years total, six years previously at Carmel, so this will be my 11th cross country season overall. I'm 30 years old.

2. What is your meet schedule this fall?

Our cross country meet is August 29.

The State Preview is September 2.

Brown County Invitational is September 9.

Trinity Invitational in Louisville is September 16.

Conference Championship September 23.

The state tournament is run on four consecutive Saturdays in October, culminating in our single-class state finals on October 28 on the famed LaVerne Gibson Cross Country course.

3. How has summer training gone for your team? What do you focus on during the summer months?

This has been our best summer yet. We had over a hundred guys at each of our practices, and all of our top returners have had a great summer. We want to build a solid aerobic base in June, July, and August to be as strong as possible for a long season.

4. Which athletes do you see as the probable top five this season?

Ben Miller - senior (third at Indiana state track finals over 3200 meters)

Colin Murphy - senior (eighth at Indiana state cross country finals)

Keelan Grant - senior (1600 meter state finalist)

Trey Harris - senior (anchor of state championship 4x8 and 800-meter state finalist)

Calvin Bates - junior

Thomas Gastineau - junior

Ben Myers - sophomore

5. Who are your team captains or leaders and what stands out about them as examples for the rest of their teammates?

Ben Miller - cares for his teammates and desire to help his teammates be their best

Colin Murphy - ability to overcome setbacks when younger

Keelan Grant - relentlessly positive attitude and improvement (ran 19:59 as a freshman and 15:55 as a junior)

Trey Harris - attention to detail

6. Who are some new faces who will make an impact on your team this year (i.e. freshmen, transfers, runners who have improved a lot)?

We have some guys who are developing to be contributors in the future but no one who will make a tangible scoring impact this early at our biggest meets.

7. What are some staple workouts your team does during the season?

Long PPM: essentially a threshold run where our guys are encouraged to do "the best you can do" for an extended distance. Our top runners typically go between six and eight miles at close to 5:30 pace. We sometimes go back to this later in the season under ideal conditions to illustrate improvement.

"Split PPM": 3x2 miles on rolling terrain that simulates our state meet course, usually done on 15 minute "goes."

"The Bear": 5K / 2 miles / 1 mile on same rolling terrain with last mile in spikes, usually done with more standing rest between intervals than the split PPM.

"High set of CIs": Short for continuous intervals, it is quarter-mile intervals with a jog rest at a prescribed pace. In the tournament season, we change to third-mile intervals at the same pace. Seniors who run an eight-mile PPM would do 16x400 with about three minutes between 400s (and six minutes after every fourth interval), and in the tournament they would do 12x533 meters with about three minutes between intervals (and six minutes after every third interval). Moving up the distance while keeping rest the same makes our guys tougher, but it takes a very good base to have the strength to complete that successfully. Our interval sessions tend to be high-volume, low-intensity.

8. What will be the biggest reason why your team is successful this season?
Leadership provided by our seniors, past key experiences, and most of all a connected group of athletes who work hard for each other.

9. What will be the biggest obstacle or challenge facing your team this season?
Staying healthy is always a concern in any sport. We had some bad luck with key seniors in 2015, and I over-corrected with our cross-training and progression in 2016 as a response to that. We will make some training adjustments this season based on what we've learned.

10. How would you describe your team's culture?
We have a large group of guys (160 this year) who want to be the best they can and help the team in any way possible. Our practices are full of supportive guys encouraging each other and executing a detailed training plan. We focus on helping our guys to learn through distance running and develop over the course of their time in high school as a distance runner. We're proud of the huge support we have from team members and parents, especially at our tournament meets in October.

11. What are your top three goals for the team this fall?
- Improve each runner on the team
- Care about and support each other
- Run our best team races on the famed LaVerne Gibson cross country course (site of Indiana state meet and Nike Midwest Regional)