For all of Lynne Mundy’s success as a runner, it may all stem from one failure as a softball player.

Mundy joined the track team in seventh grade after being cut from the softball team and quickly became arguably the top member of her team.

Eight years later, she’s one of the top runners of Syracuse’s team. After qualifying for the NCAA Regionals as just a freshman, she’s looking to get back there as a junior.

The SU track and field teams are split up this weekend, between the Spec Towns Invitational in Athens, Ga., and the Tony Waldrop Open in Chapel Hill, N.C.

Mundy was sold on Syracuse after having conversations with SU head coach Chris Fox and was enticed by the program’s dedication to winning.

Yet when Mundy arrived at SU, she quickly realized at her new track-and-field home she may not be able to be as dominant as she was in high school, with her All-State and All-County awards at Cornwall (N.Y.) High School.

At Cornwall, Mundy ran the 3,000-meter run and the steeplechase, but not at the same time. A distance runner, Mundy transitioned from running a 2,000-meter steeplechase to a 3,000-meter steeplechase. The switch of running a longer event is something that Mundy had to adjust to, something that typically happens to runners when they enter the collegiate level.

‘She had to make an adjustment,’ Fox said. ‘She came from a low-mileage high school, and we are considered a medium mileage college. It was a gigantic step for her, and she just kept getting stronger and stronger. She was one of the better freshmen when she came in.’

This was not always so simple for Mundy. Before coming to college she typically ran with her neighbors for shorter distances than a competitive team would.

‘Yeah, it’s different with the training,’ Mundy said. ‘I used to run about 35 to 40 minutes and that has been bumped up for my training. Now it’s about an hour. But 1,000 meters doesn’t really matter that much. I mean it does in terms of training, but not so much when you are in the race.’

The training paid off. In her first season with the Orange, Mundy grabbed numerous Big East qualifying times in the 3,000-meter run and was able to post a time that propelled her to a national level. At the Larry Ellis Invitational she took fifth in the 3,000 steeplechase with an NCAA Regional qualifying time (10:47.93). Two weeks later, at the Big East championships, Mundy grabbed seventh place in the same event.

In her NCAA Regional in Gainesville, Fla., Mundy finished 32nd in the field of 40. Although Mundy personally has set no major goals for her season, she wants to keep improving her times. Yet Fox said the staff wants Mundy to be thinking in the direction of becoming a great steeplechaser with a Big East and potentially national reputation.

‘Coming in, I didn’t really know what good times were,’ Mundy said. ‘I had no times to compare it to. So the coaches came up with some good standards of where I should be at. It was definitely challenging at times.’

Mundy is an extremely vocal member of the team who is constantly smiling and chatting about topics from track to her passion for the New York Mets, something that Fox said is a tremendous asset to the team.

Fox describes Mundy as one of his personal favorites to coach on the team. So it’s no wonder that Mundy was ecstatic to hear Fox signed a contract extension in January.

‘I am very pleased that Coach Fox is staying,’ Mundy said. ‘It’s important to be able to get along with your coaches really well. You also want some sort of stability, because you don’t want the coach who recruited you to pick up and leave. He is part of the reason I came here, and he believes in the program enough to stay with it.’

hscrowle@syr.edu

Published on April 10, 2008 at 12:00 pm