Chris Fox knows one of his star runners, Nana Sang-Bender, well. So well, in fact, he’s comfortable making guarantees – even with Sang-Bender nursing an injury.

‘She’s not at the top of her game right now,’ said Fox, the Syracuse track and field head coach. ‘She missed three to four months of running, but that didn’t seem to bother her. But in the next three weeks you’ll see her so some big things. She will qualify for (NCAA) regionals.’

Fox’s prediction isn’t much of a stretch, though. Sang-Bender, a junior distance runner, has qualified for the NCAAs every year in both the track and field and cross country seasons. The native of the Democratic Republic of the Congo will continue her quest to make regionals once again this weekend as Syracuse travels to Philadelphia for the prestigious Penn Relays, which will host more than 15,000 athletes.

Fresh off months of rehab, Sang-Bender turned in a time of 4:31.44 in the 1500-meter run last weekend at the Larry Ellis Invitational. That time was good enough to qualify for the Big East and IC4A championships.

It was impressive enough to surprise the SU coaching staff, considering it was her first race since the cross country season. But that’s not what Sang-Bender has in mind as an ultimate goal.

‘Nana is very driven and doesn’t need to be motivated,’ Fox said. ‘She’s a goal-orientated and a tough, tough girl. She has a little injury, but everybody does at this level of the sport. Anyone who does it at the level she trains is going to get hurt sometime.’

Although coaches may not need to motivate Sang-Bender, she finds ways to keep herself on track with her competition. She always has something to strive for and is perpetually chasing a goal – a trait that may stem from her journey to Syracuse.

In 2001, Sang-Bender moved nearly 6,500 miles to Syracuse from her home in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The transition was a difficult one at first. Sang-Bender admitted it was well worth it for the running experience she has gained.

Sang-Bender is currently not an American citizen, and if she raced professionally would therefore be running for the Congo. As of right now, she is unsure whether or not she will attempt to compete at the professional level after her stint at Syracuse concludes.

Sang-Bender has yet to return to the Congo, but she plans on making a trip back to her home in the near future, perhaps after graduation next spring. The childhood she experienced in the Congo was completely different from her life in the United States. Learning new fashion or speech wasn’t hard, but exams were.

‘It’s very different,’ Sang-Bender said. ‘The education system (in the Congo) is completely different from what you guys have here. Here you have multiple choice in the classes, and I never learned that. That was one of the hardest things I had to adjust to in the American system. It was really hard for me, but it’s completely different country and a different culture.

Sang-Bender starting running track her junior year of high school and felt she had a slight disadvantage to those who had been running since the eighth grade. When it came time for Sang-Bender to decide which college to attend it was a no-brainer. After leaving her former home she was not about to pick up and leave all over again. The proximity to her home and family – Sang-Bender attended Onondaga High School – made Syracuse the logical choice.

Her recent return to running ignited the dormant competitive nature of Sang-Bender. Her time last week was impressive to the staff, but Sang-Bender felt differently, feeling she could have turned in an even quicker time in her first race back.

The fact she was restricted from running for months has made her eager to make the most of the limited qualifying opportunities she has left. The months on the elliptical, in the pool and on the bike have all led up to these final moments on the track.

‘Always, just go after the people who you know are better than you,’ Sang-Bender said. ‘Those who are better in terms of how long they have been running, in terms of their times and if their time is faster than my time. … Maybe one day I will reach that level where all the people will look up to me and say, ‘Oh she’s a great runner and way ahead of me.”

hscrowle@syr.edu

Published on April 23, 2008 at 12:00 pm