Big River Featured Article: Emily Sisson
Big River Running Company Co-Owner Ben Rosario sat down with Missouri State Champion Emily Sisson in December to talk about her career thus far, what lies ahead for 2010 and about her future at the University of Wisconsin. Below is the article that will aslo appear in the next issue of Missouri Runner and Triathlete magazine. Enjoy!
Competitive runners have certain ways they define each other. He’s a sub four miler, she’s an Olympic Trials qualifier, he’s a 14 minute 5k guy. There are certain barriers and accomplishments that need no explanation for those who speak the language. One of those accomplishments is being a Foot Locker finalist in high school. Parkway Central senior Emily Sisson; she’s a four-time Foot Locker finalist.
Sisson qualified for the prestigious meet again this fall after garnering runner-up honors at the Foot Locker Midwest qualifying meet in Kenosha, Wis. on November 28. It was there, on a very muddy course, that Sisson said she felt the most pressure.
“Ever since I made it my freshman year I wanted to be a four-timer because the experience is just so cool,” Sisson said. “So I put a lot of pressure on myself at regionals but at nationals I was just there to run my race and as long as I did my best I knew I’d be happy.”
At the National meet, with the pressure level low Sisson showed up big, racing her way to a third place finish in the field of 40. She said she knew she could run with the top girls even though a lot of the pre-race hype was about the four athletes who had won each of the four regional meets.
“That’s how it always is,” Sisson said. “They look at the regional winners and they look at times from really fast cross country courses but in the Midwest we don’t have really fast courses.”
The national meet in San Diego is held at famed Balboa Park and it is not an easy course either. There is only one big hill but the athletes have to run it twice. Often times the race is won or lost on the second trip up the hill. Sisson said she actually had trouble there but regained her rhythm over the final stretch.
“I was with the top five and then going up the second hill they really separated,” Sisson said. “I was behind Aisling Cuffe from the Northeast but once I crossed the road with 200 meters to go I was able to pass her so it worked out.”
Sisson’s road to becoming one of the best runners in the country started not on the track but on the soccer field. She was an age-group soccer player growing up first in Wisconsin and then in Omaha, Neb. where her running career began.
“I started running in seventh grade because I thought it would be a good idea for soccer conditioning,” Sisson said. I loved soccer. “I had been playing it since I was six.”
Sisson’s conversion from running all over the soccer pitch as a midfielder to running away from her opponents on the cross country course and on the track was aided by her club team in Omaha, the Cornhusker Flyers. Sisson said her coach John Wissler and some fast teammates helped her get hooked on running.
“I was on a good team with some other good runners and we had a good coach,” Sisson said. “I kind of lost interest in soccer and wanted to put more of my effort into running.”
While it is not at all uncommon for a runner to make a successful transition from the soccer pitch to the cross country course most don’t make it to the national championships after less than two years of running. Sisson not only qualified for the Foot Locker finals as a freshman but she finished third. Being so young Sisson said she did not realize the significance of the meet until she actually got to San Diego for the finals.
“I was blown away by it all,” Sisson said. “It was so cool.”
That race in 2006 is even more impressive when you look at the list of girls she beat including Marie Lawrence, Neely Spence and Jordan Hasay who are all current stars on the collegiate level. The performance fueled Sisson’s passion for running but she said she kept her goals in perspective.
“I knew it wasn’t going to be easy but I was so exited about it,” Sisson said. I was just hoping to go back the next few years and run as well.”
Don’t confuse her humility with meekness when the gun goes off however. Her racing resume is filled with wins on the biggest of stages and on her level you don’t win without being able to dig down pretty darn deep. She followed up her first nationals appearance in cross country with a win in the 5k at the Finish Line USA Junior Track and Field championships in June of 2007. The junior championships are open to anyone 19 years of age or younger so Sisson, as a 15-year-old, was racing and beating college freshman. In the age of the internet the race solidified Sisson as a superstar, someone who fans saw as a potential world-class runner not just as a blue-chip recruit.
Sisson followed up her phenomenal freshman season with a sophomore campaign that included another trip to Foot Locker nationals where she finished 23rd. Not disappointing by any means but not as well as she had done the year before. At the US Junior championships she finished fourth in the 3k, a fantastic run in a blazing 10:01, but not quite as prestigious as her 5k triumph the year before.
Then came the big change. Sisson found out that summer that she would be moving. Her father took a new job and it looked like the Sissons would be moving to Kansas City where she was likely to attend cross country powerhouse Lee’s Summit West. She had become facebook friends with the girls from team and it seemed like it would be a smooth transition. At the last second plans changed and they ended up in Saint Louis and in the Parkway Central school district.
“I was kind of in shock,” Sisson said. “I didn’t know anything about Saint Louis.”
Her lack of familiarity with the area didn’t seem to slow her down any. Plus she got a teammate at Parkway Central, Diane Robison, who was also a star. Sisson rolled through her junior season undefeated in Missouri, losing only to former Foot Locker champions Kathy Kroeger and Ashley Brasovan at the Great American Cross Country Festival in Hoover, Ala. She won the Missouri State championship before qualifying, along with Robison, for her third Foot Locker finals. The finals were disappointing for the second year in a row, however, as she finished 29th.
Disappointments are pretty hard to find in Sisson’s career however and they are always negated by her many successes. She found almost nothing but success the following track season where she won three individual titles and helped lead Parkway Central to a second place team finish at the 2009 Missouri State Track and Field championships. She then scored a big win at the Nike Outdoor National Meet in the 5k and a runner-up finish at the US Junior championships in the 3k. Her 3k performance earned Sisson a second trip to the Junior Pan-Am Games to be held in Trinidad and Tobago. She had also been to Brazil in 2007. Sisson said representing her country has been one of the best experiences of her life.
“Getting to wear the US jersey is such an honor,” Sisson said. “Just getting to travel with so many talented runners and racing people from different countries…it’s so cool”
Sisson will have another opportunity to run for team USA when she races at the US Junior Cross Country championships in Spokane, Wash. on Feb. 13. The top six finishers at the championships will qualify to wear the red, white and blue in Bydgoszcz, Poland on March 28. Should Sisson qualify for Worlds she will then have just a short track season remaining before taking the next step in her career; running collegiately at the University of Wisconsin.
Sisson comes from a family of Badgers as both her parents are Wisconsin alums. Even though she admitted her dad was happy about the decision Sisson said her parents put absolutely no pressure on here.
“My mom actually encouraged me to look at other schools,” Sisson said. “I realized after seeing schools all over the country that I wanted to stay in the Midwest so for me it came down to Illinois or Wisconsin.”
When she arrives in Madison Sisson will be joined by one of her original facebook friends from Lee’s Summit West, Liga Blyholder. Blyholder, a standout runner in her own right, helped lead the Titans to the last two Missouri State team titles in cross country. The pair will join a Badger team that was a top four team at the NCAA Cross Country Championships as recently as 2006.
Sisson will look to gradually pick up her training at Wisconsin. In high school Sisson said her main focus has been staying healthy.
“I’ve been running five days a week with two hard workouts and one of those being a tempo run,” Sisson said. “[Wisconsin Coach Jim Stinzi] works with you individually and helps you adjust because I know I don’t want to go from running my mileage to running really high mileage.”
If all goes well Sisson will not just be known as a four-time Foot Locker finalist. Maybe she’ll be Emily Sisson; NCAA Champ or even Emily Sisson; Olympian.
[Ed. note- Sisson ran 9:25 for 3k at an indoor meet at KU on Jan. 30 making her the third fastest high schooler of all-time at that distance]
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