MileSplit Fast Four: A weekly glimpse at four of our nation's best

MileSplit Fast Four: A weekly glimpse at four of our nation's best

Each week here at MileSplit we will be giving you a quick look at four of the nation's best runners. Featured this week are Drew Shields (IN), Madeline Morgan (AL), Ben Furcht (PA) and Lindsay Flanagan (IL).

 

 

Drew Shields
Sr., Fishers H.S.
Fishers, IN


Highlights: Prior to the fall of 2006 Shields had never competed in a 5000 meter race, during junior high and his freshman year of high school he participated in football instead of cross country.  In a little over two years he has gone from never running a cross country race to being the 2008 IHSAA State Champion and a national qualifier in both NXN and Foot Locker, placing seventh at the Nike Cross Nationals.  In three seasons, Drew has led the FHS Boys Cross Country Team to a 7th place team finish at state (2006), the 2007 State Team Championship and the 5th place team finish this year. Last spring at the IHSAA Boys Track & Field State Championships, he won both the 1600 & 800 meter run, the first time it has been done in Indiana in 60 years.  He followed up his state performance with a 4:09.64 full mile at the Midwest Distance Gala, placing him 8th all time for Indiana high school student athletes in the 1600 meter run.
 
Coach (Nathan Warnecke) says: “Drew's success both in cross country and track & field comes from his relentless drive to be the best and his dedication and complete faith in our system.  Drew understood early on that if he wanted to reach his goals and beyond that it was going to be a long term process and he could not rely solely on his nature talent.  Drew has bought into our training philosophy even though he is not always thrilled to put in the weekly distance run or do a particular workout, but he understands and accepts that it has a purpose and completes it as planned.  He has set the standard for our younger distance runners in regards to what it takes to reach your goals and the importance of remaining humble and respectful once you do.  These attributes will serve Drew well on the collegiate level where I am confident he will continue to be very successful.”  

Shields says: “Our program is all about the end of the year stuff rather than the beginning of the year. People aren’t really going to remember what happens in August and September. It’s all about what happens late October for us, then into November and now into December. I’m just glad I could keep the long term in focus. It was really hard in the beginning of the year when I was not running the way I knew I could, but it’s definitely all paying off right now. I just stuck with it. It was really frustrating. One meet that comes to mind was the Culver Invite. Neuqua Valley with Danny Pawola was down and Futsum was there; they both handed me my butt. After that race I was just in shock of how bad I did. Coach was like, ‘Drew your not going to be doing well right now. Your legs are incredibly tired. You’re doing more mileage than anybody right now. You’ll be alright.’ I kind just took that. Kept turning out the miles. As we started to get to the postseason, I started feeling a lot better.”

Summer mileage (max): 94

Weekly mileage: 75-80

Training shoes:
Asics 2130

Superstitions: Shields eats pasta the night before and pancakes the morning of a race.

Hobbies: Hanging with friends

Favorite athlete: Ryan Hall