Let me tell you something about Will Christian. Something his teammates and coach don't even know: The kid loves to talk.
Now, if you listen to them, they'll say he's quiet, that he's an enigma he's so quiet. They'll also say he's focused and determined. They'll say he's the hardest worker on the team. "The measuring stick" is how teammate Dave Vitto puts it. And you know what? They're right about those things. But they're wrong about this one. Will Christian loves to talk.
Hold up, because I know what you're saying to yourself. You're saying, "Who the hell is Will Christian?"
He's the number one runner on the Virginia cross country team. He won the Lou Onesty Invitational this year. He finished sixth at the Great American Cross Country Festival. He finished third in the conference championship meet. He's run a 24:03 for the 8K.
And hold up again, because I know what you're saying now, too. You're saying, "What does that even mean?"
It means he could be an All-American. It means he's All-Conference and was twice the ACC Runner of the Week this season. It means Will Christian can run five miles at 4:48 pace per mile.
You've never heard of Will Christian, and granted, it's easy not to notice him. He competes in a sport that gets no press and has no fans. (And let's get this straight: There are no cross country fans, only parents of cross country runners.) Even within the cross country race, Will's easy to miss. He doesn't come booming out from the beginning to dominate a race. He starts a race coming through the mile in the middle of the pack. At the second mile, he's a little farther up. Only after the race is half over do you notice that Will is in the front pack of runners and that the guys who went out fast are dying while Will cruises on.
It's now that you notice Will Christian. And when you do, it's easy to see why he excels at his sport. His 5-foot-10-inch, 140-pound frame glides up and down hills and around turns. It seems like his shaved head allows him to cut through the wind while everyone else battles against it. Like all great athletes, he makes his sport look easy.
One thing you should know is that Will Christian knows exactly how good he is. Will has nearly every time he's ever run memorized. First race ever? 19:07 for a 5K. Penn Relays as a high school senior? 8:31 in the 3000-meter run and third place. Okay, how about cross country state meet sophomore year in high school? Ooh, that's a sensitive subject. An 88th place finish makes it easy to forget. Call it selective memory.
"Most of them -- my highlights and my PRs -- I remember," he says. "But you say, 'What did I run my first race freshman year?' I couldn't tell you."
But Will, didn't you win your first race as a freshman at Virginia?
"Yeah, but I was talking about high school. Here, yeah, it was 25:26."
And so it goes.
Now I told you that Will loves to talk, but he hasn't gotten a word in edge-wise so far. So just listen to him talk.
Hey Will, the team gonna make it to nationals this year?
"We know that we are a team that can go to nationals," Christian said. "We know we are a team that can be top-two in regionals. We've just got to go out and do it. We will."
Hey Will, at the ACC Championship it looked like Andy Smith of N.C. State got away from you toward the end of the race.
"It's such a fine line between first and third," he replied. "I know I can beat him. I beat him at Great American."
What makes you so confident?
"I just think I'm a better runner than he is," Christian said. "And at a longer distance like 10K at regionals and nationals, I think I'll be able to beat him."
Hey Will, Duke's Michael Hatch beat you at Pre-Nationals.
"I'll beat him at ACCs," he answered unflinchingly.
Will straddles the line between confident and cocky with the way he talks. What he says seems logical and makes perfect sense. At ACCs, he did beat Hatch, just as he said he would. At regionals and nationals, the added distance probably will help him.
"He's just got a lot of confidence," Virginia coach Jason Dunn said. "He's always had maybe a little bit of bravado. He's always had a fair amount of confidence in his running. Now he's got the training under his belt to match his level of confidence or his level of expectations. He's wanted to be that big-time guy his whole time here."
But still, even in an era when athletes guarantee victories on a weekly basis, Will's confidence seems oddly non-confrontational. He isn't challenging himself with his boasts or firing up a team; it seems that he's merely stating a fact.
"I know how good I am," he says. "I try to be humble every now and then. I am one of the best runners in the ACC and I will be the best runner in the ACC next year. And if people see that as cocky, I can't do anything about it. But that's my goal, and that's what I want to do and I know I'm going to do it."
There he goes again, saying he'll be the best runner in the ACC next season. Maybe it's in his blood.
But what if he's right? What if Will Christian will be the best runner in the ACC next year? What if the extra mile and a quarter at nationals make him an All-American? What if the best is still ahead for Will Christian?
"He's starting to see how good he really can be," Dunn says. "But I think we're just scratching the surface. I think while he's been really successful in cross country, he's a really smooth rhythm runner. And I think he may be better on the track. I think he may really shine on the track. I definitely see him as a guy who could go to nationals in track in the 5K and eventually in the 10K. He could be a really good distance runner on the national level."
He'd really be talking then.
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