In 15 months, redshirt freshman Martin Hehir transformed from not running at all to being the face of the men’s cross country program.

Named the Big East champion in the conference tournament, Hehir led Syracuse to its third conference title in four years. Syracuse missed the nod as Big East champions last year, so Hehir was determined to bring a title back to the program before departing for the Atlantic Coast Conference next season.

“It means a lot to the team and the school, especially since it’s our last Big East,” Hehir said. “We really wanted to go out with the title and have it be undisputed”

In a tight race at the end, Hehir outlasted Providence’s Shane Quinn, who led for the majority of the race.

“Other guys started coming from behind us, so we started sprinting,” Hehir said. “It just ended up I just started catching Shane Quinn.”

Hehir recalls the coaches on the sidelines screaming and cheering them on to finish strong.

Flying past Quinn, Hehir sprinted to a time of 24:37.20 — Quinn’s time, 24:38.31, a 1.1-second differential. Mehir passed Quinn to take first place and Whelan came in fourth place.

The Orange once again proved how strong its team was after a disappointing finish in the Wisconsin Invitational.

The men’s team placed first in every invitational earlier in the season, but struggled in Wisconsin. The Adidas Invitational was the first big race of the season in which Syracuse competed with 20 of the top 30 programs in the country.

“The Wisconsin race was really our first big race of the season,” Hehir said. “So it was kind of the first race we weren’t going to win.”

Hehir came in 72nd place as harriers for the Orange placed from 56th to 181st  place. As a team, the Orange came in 11th place.

Wisconsin was not the team’s best race, but the Big East Championship was a race of redemption.

“It was really important for us to win the last Big East meet that we’ll be in,” head coach Chris Fox said. “We don’t like to lose.”

At the Big East Championship, the last harrier to place for Syracuse was in 41st place. Syracuse’s entire team was deep. The remaining 70-plus harriers from the 13 other Big East schools finished the race staggered because they only had a few solid runners.

Syracuse started the race pack running, and they stayed together until midway through. The familiar course helped them run together; Hehir said the hilly course was to their advantage.

“It was a grass field and a dirt path; it was a hilly course,” Hehir said. “It suited us because we do a lot of hilly courses when we train.”

Running 12 to 13 miles a day and a total of 70 miles at the end of the week, the course and volume was familiar to the Syracuse runners.

Seventy miles are now easy for Hehir to complete. He struggled with the training when he first arrived at Syracuse, but eventually acclimated to the new intensity of training.

“He came in a little bit inexperienced,” Fox said. “To tell you the truth, in his first six weeks, he wasn’t very good.”

But Fox said his hard training paid off, as he definitely is in the top 7 as a freshman.

As far as being an All-American for the NCAA Championship, Fox said: “If I was in his shoes, that would be my goal. It’s a big goal for a freshman, but if he runs like he did on Friday, he has an opportunity for sure.”

Published on November 1, 2012 at 1:14 am

Contact Melissa: qsbronso@syr.edu