Mahalsky and Mueller Continue Winning and Development in Post-Collegiate Running

By Tim Geer, Lehigh Sports Communications

When hearing about athletes competing professionally at the next level after college, running probably would not be the first sport to come to people's minds. However, for Lehigh alums Tyler Mueller '14 and Ryan Mahalsky '15, their highly successful running careers at Lehigh helped give them a platform for the success they endured since their final collegiate meet.

On December 9, both runners were in Louisville, Kentucky competing with their club teams at the USATF Club Cross Country Championships. The event featured many of the top club teams from across the country, which include runners that have come from some of the country's top programs, including former NCAA national champions. Mahalsky, who joined Hansons-Brooks Distance Project, one of the top club cross programs in the nations, placed third overall and Mueller grabbed 10th place, making Lehigh the only school in the country with two runners finishing in the top 10. Mahalsky's third place finish earned him a spot on Team USA, which will compete January 13 at the Great Edinburgh XCountry Challenge in Edinburgh, Scotland. Sort of a Ryder Cup of cross country, the meet features three teams: USA, the U.K. and the rest of Europe and will feature many Olympians, including Britain's Mo Farah, who recently won two gold medals at the 2016 Summer Olympics.

"It's a big honor," Mahalsky said. "I never thought I'd be good enough to represent the USA. I'm really excited, but at the same time it's still a stepping stone. I'm not going there to be a tourist. I want to be an impact guy and be one of the top five scorers, eventually make the world cross country team next year, and then place high up in the Olympic trials on the track and in the marathon."

"The USATF Club Cross Country Championships has grown to be one of the premier races in the country since Lehigh hosted it in December of 2014," Lehigh head men's cross country coach Todd Etters said. "Tyler finished 13th that day as Ryan, still a senior at Lehigh, watched on. A few years later to see both guys finish in the top ten is amazing."

While both enjoyed individual success at the club nationals, their team's accomplishments have gained just as much notoriety. Mahalsky helped Hansons-Brooks to a third place finish, while Mueller's Tinman Elite squad surprised many by pulling off an upset to win the team championship. The story behind Tinman's win and their formation is certainly one of legends. 21721

"It's much less of a formal team than the ones we were competing against," Mueller said. "Boulder's probably the only place in the country where there are so many good endurance athletes that you can have this organic group where people can do club cross and beat all the professional teams. It's really organic and fun."

Based in Boulder, Colorado, the team is comprised of six area men that run and train together that decided to put a team together to compete at this year's club nationals.

"We just had a really good day and all six of our guys ran one of the best races of their lives, and that's really rare," Mueller said. "It's hard to run your PR-type performance consistently or have your whole team do it on the same day."

Unlike most other club teams that are comprised of professional runners with sponsors, most of the guys from Tinman are not professionals and instead have full-time jobs. Mueller is no exception.

A native of Pottstown, Pa., Mueller got a job right after graduation in Madison, Wisconsin with a medical software company. After two years of working, he began getting back into the sport and qualified for the 2016 Olympic Marathon Trials, which drew the attention of some professional running groups. After deciding to quit his job to move to Colorado and pursue running, Mueller experienced several stress fractures before hanging up his spikes and accepting a job with a firm that does executive recruiting for tech startups. After taking a few months off with the weather starting to warm up, Mueller once again began running with his Tinman friends, often times early in the morning before work, and sometimes once again later in the day.

"It's a good work-life balance, I feel like I'm doing something productive during the day," Mueller said. "When you work 40 hours a week, there's still plenty of time to train. With Tinman, we all have our strengths that help each other and contribute to the group."

While there is a lot of self-motivation involved, Mueller says he continues to run out of pure love for the sport. Moving forward, he is looking to run the USA XC Championships before running some 10K track and road races next year while remaining involved with Tinman Elite.

"I've been doing it lately because I just love it," Mueller said. "I'm having such a good time training with the guys I'm training with who are some of the best in the country. I train daily with runners I used to read about online, and not only am I enjoying it, but I'm seeing the benefits too and I'm probably in the best shape of my life. The Boulder community has played a big part in it because it's the best place to train."

Mahalsky's path to competing with Hansons-Brooks has taken a decidedly different path than Mueller's. After graduating in 2015, Mahalsky stayed in the Patriot League at American University where he taught classes and served as an assistant coach for two years, and was also being coached by longtime AU coach and former Olympian Matt Centrowitz. After Centrowitz's retirement in last spring, Mahalsky was put in contact with Kevin Hanson of Hansons-Brooks Distance Project. After flying out to Michigan for a visit, Mahalsky joined the club this past September, began working in a running store on the side, and is looking to teach health and fitness classes at a local college. Among his teammates at Hansons-Brooks is Ian LaMere, a former D-III national champion at Wisconsin-Plattesville. LaMere will join Mahalsky in Scotland at the Edinburgh meet, along with three of the women from Hansons-Brooks who will also compete for Team USA.

"People who come from small schools like that sometimes get burnt out after four years of college, but they find a way to keep pushing the limits after college and he has supported me," Mahalsky said. "The last two years I was in D.C., I was missing a training partner who can just push me every single day and I think that's what puts you over the top sometimes."

Despite being in different time zones, both Mahalsky and Mueller share the bond of running, which has kept them in close contact, as they regularly talk throughout the week.

"A lot of our friends are working now in Manhattan or Philly as engineers and accountants, but we're still running and we talk about what's going on in the sport," Mahalsky said. "We don't give away too much of our secrets, but we talk about our routines and what kinds of workouts we do. We each had probably our best races on (Dec. 9) and I think we got something out of each other. We don't get to see each other as much as we want, but he's one of my best friends and we definitely help each other out to this day."

"We are really close and have both played a huge role in each other's running careers," Mueller said. "If there's anyone I'm happy to lose to, it's him. We have this bond where we have continued to run seriously after college, and it is good having someone that is in the same position as you. Seeing him break some of my records in college was cool, then I made a little jump after college and pulled ahead again, but he has stuck it out so much tougher than I have. He is pursuing an excellence in running and is truly one of the best pro distance runners in the country right now."

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Both agree that the key to their success goes back to their days in Bethlehem, where the Lehigh program emphasized developing them into the kind of runner they are today, motivating them and building them up into some of the top runners in the Patriot League.

"It is a testament to Lehigh and Coach Etters still keeping that long term development in mind," Mueller said. "In the Patriot League, it's more focused on getting the developmental athlete and working on developing them, where at bigger schools they're ready to go out of the box and the coaches' main job is to keep them healthy. The coaches that can develop runners are the ones who can win the Patriot League championships, and it's successes like that that keep you coming back for more."

"It just shows that Etters can get you where you want to go," Mahalsky added. "He's a great motivator and wants you to get as much as you can get. Coming out of high school, Tyler and I were no better than many of the guys on the team now, and I hope it shows them that if you work, you can really achieve some cool things. When I come back and talk to the team, I always tell them it's never over, there's always something to get after and you've never fully arrived. You can always keep getting better whether you're a senior in high school, in college or 24 or 25 years old."

At Lehigh, both men helped Lehigh to its first Patriot League championship title in 2012. The following year, Mueller won the Patriot League's individual title before placing 67th at the NCAA Championships. Mahalsky competed at NCAAs in 2014, where he placed 46th, and earned All-America honors in the 10K on the track in 2015.

"One of the largest sources of pride I have in our program is hearing about the successes that our alumni have in their post collegiate running," Etters said. "I am always mindful that competition shouldn't stop at graduation and running is a sport that can last a lifetime."

"Another thing to look at with a successful program is the rate at which people stay on the team," Mahalsky said. "Usually, you get a class of eight or nine coming in as freshmen and at some schools that shrinks to four or five as seniors. However, at Lehigh it seems like everyone wants to stay on the team. Nobody really leaves angry or transfers because Etters runs a good program and motivates you. If you want to be as good as you can, he'll get you there."

For the short term, Mahalsky has his sights set on the Edinburgh meet and accomplishing his next goals. He is one of just nine men on the team representing the USA.

"I'm really excited," Mahalsky said. "Wearing the USA singlet is going to be pretty cool. At the end of the day, we have goals and mine is to be a top five scorer for team USA and top 10 overall. When there is a big race like this to look forward to, it makes training a lot easier and I'm looking forward to traveling, meeting new people and competing on a pretty cool course. Hopefully it's the first of many USA meets."

The attention and pride the two runners have brought to the Lehigh program has reached far beyond the current runners and coaching staff, and has excited numerous alums who have been following along.

"I can speak for dozens of alumni and we couldn't be happier," said Joe McVeigh '86, who represented the USA himself in the marathon of the 1999 Pan-Am Games in Winnipeg. "The program has been a great source of pride even for old-timers like me. One thing I have noticed, once you make the finals or make Team USA, you get greedy and want to make it again and again. I hope more people can join the club. My USA jersey hangs in the (Penske/Lehigh Athletics) Hall of Fame and I hope Ryan gets four or five to crowd me out."

"Many teams will get blue chippers and they'll improve or stay the same, but Lehigh has had many athletes across disciplines improve while they're there," McVeigh said. "Two things that really help is the coaches are all about the athletes and not the results. They try to run it like a family and the kids have really bought into it. The Utesch's have been around a long time and that continuity is helpful. They care about everyone and that creates a positive feedback of the whole team, from the stars down to the depth people. It has been really amazing to see."

"I hope Ryan and I can be role models for the guy on the team now," Mueller said. "There's really no limit and it's not going to happen overnight, but over 3-5 years you can be a whole different animal. I remember looking up to Evans Kosgei and I really enjoy trying to help motivate and guide the guys now because I can think about how much I loved that communication."

"For both of these guys, this is just the beginning because I know how hard they work," Etters said. "Tyler is doing it while managing a full time job and Ryan is fortunate enough to make his living as a professional runner. The future is bright and I expect that we will have more guys following their lead in the future."

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Mahalsky and Mueller Continue Winning and Development in Post-Collegiate Running

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