Steve Hallinan, Cardinal O'Hara SR, Three-time PCL Champ, and Belmont Plateau Course Record-Holder (15:42)
PTXC: Are you going to miss this place?
Hallinan: It's gonna be weird not running here with an O'Hara jersey on. But it's been four years and it's time to move on. I have bigger and better things coming for me. So I just have to keep up my training, work hard, and hopefully make Nationals, and finish out my senior year with a bang, and then go on to college and run well.
PTXC: Were getting the Belmont course record and winning a third straight PCL championship the goals this year?
Hallinan: Three-peat and the course record were big, and up there on the indiividual goals, and Nationals is still out there, so I have half of it done. In the meantime, I just have to keep up the hard work for the next four weeks and hopefully, if I'm still running the way I've been running at Regionals, hopefully I have a shot to make it.
PTXC: LaSalle was winning going into the woods, so who cam e up big for O'Hara the second half of the race that brought you guys within a point of winning PCLs again?
Hallinan: Well, Greg is just an amazing guy. Getting 2nd is just mind-boggling. A sophomore getting 2nd in 16:05 is just out of control. And Mike Calllanan, who is our third man all year, seeded 10th coming in, and gets 5th. He always comes up big here. He was 5th last year. And when we were sophomores, he won it for us. He was 16th. He saved us. He knows how to run Catholics and he ran excellent today. He PR'd and ran 16:33. Our 4th man was 16th, and he PR'd, and he ran great.
PTXC: Talk about your race at Van Cortlandt at Eastern States getting 2nd to the all-time 10th best 2.5 time there?
Hallinan: It was a good race. I didn't feel like I had everything. I had no finish. I was winning by 20 meters with 1000 to go. The week before I had Dellcos and ran a 15:32, so my coach told me you can't put all your eggs in one basket every week. The plus was, I got to see the course this year. I didn't think there were as many hills back there as there are, so now I can readjust my plan for the race. I just have to get out with the leaders, and then move on from there.
PTXC: What are plans before Foot Lockers?
Hallinan: I'll be going to Mid-East in Ohio in two weeks. I'm so used to racing, so there's no point in changing the strategy now. I'll have two weeks of good training, Mid-East, then two more and then Foot Lockers. Hopefully we'll run well as a team as Mid-East, because recently PA gets waxed pretty badly.
PTXC: How's the college search?
Hallinan: It's going alright. I'm more focused on cross country right now. I'll think about it more after cross country. I've talked to a couple of coaches, so it's going pretty well.