Kenosha, Wis. native, Kevin Randle, has been running competitively for ten years. He has made himself a leader of St. Ambrose’s cross country team. Recently, he ran his way to his second consecutive Conference Championship and the national competition. The junior political science major is achieving great things for Ambrose through running, and that is why Kevin has been chosen as this week’s Campus Celebrity.
Randle began running in middle school on his school’s track team. Since then, he has come a long way. Today, he is one of the captains of Ambrose’s cross country team, and he also runs track and field.
This season was very successful for Randle and his teammates.
“We have a great team which continues to improve. Almost every Ambrose runner set a new personal best time compared to past seasons,” he proudly explained.
The men’s team took second place at the conference meet, and the women’s team placed fourth.
This isn’t to say the season was without obstacles. The beginning of the season in particular was a struggle for Randle. He battled a foot injury, plantar fasciitis, which prevented him from competing in many meets and forced him to change his training schedule. Still, he says that his “foot seemed to heal at just the right time in the season,” and he was able to win the conference championship, qualifying Randle for the National Cross Country Championships. Not only did he win, but he also set a course record– completing the 8K race with a time of 27:20.
Randle will represent Ambrose in Vancouver, Wash. on November 19th for the national meet. Here, he will run against some of the fastest and best runners from colleges throughout America. In order to prepare for the race, he will be doing some of the most demanding workouts of the season.
However, he is familiar with the demands of training for Nationals. He also qualified for both cross country and track and field nationals as a freshman and sophomore. In fact, in track and field he qualified for the USA Track and Field Jr. National Championships as a freshman by running a 10K with a time of 31:33. This is his proudest moment at Ambrose because he was “able to race with and compete against some of the fastest people in the nation.”
In the future, Randle hopes to be able to qualify for more national championships in both of his sports. Someday, he would love to be able to compete in the USA Track and Field Championships, but he says that seems like a distant goal right now. After Ambrose, he plans to attend law school and continue running—even if it is not competitively.
For now though, he has his eyes set on the race ahead of him.
“I plan on training for and focusing on one race at a time, and for me that next race is Nationals.”
Good luck to Kevin as he represents Ambrose at Nationals this weekend!