Alex Krieger, senior cross country runner, has had a tremendous career at Saint Vincent College and his final season is starting off in the same way.
The men’s cross country team’s first race of the season was the 5k Alumni Run on Aug. 26, which included students and alumni of the men’s and women’s cross country teams, the women’s tennis team and family members.
Krieger placed second overall, crossing the finish line eleven seconds behind Kevin Wanichko, SVC cross country alumnus.
On Sept. 1, SVC hosted the Early Bird Invitational, the first intercollegiate race of the season. The Bearcats placed first and Krieger finished second overall — first among the Bearcats.
On Sept. 15 the team traveled to South Bend Indiana to compete in the National Catholic Invitational. The Bearcats competed against 15 other Division II and III schools from all over the country. Krieger finished twenty-second overall out of one-hundred and thirty-one runners, helping the team secure sixth place.
Krieger’s accomplishments this season are no surprise considering his past achievements.
Andrew Herr, head coach of the cross counry team, said that Krieger’s success is the result of consistent, hard work.
“He works hard both in-season and out-of-season,” Herr said. “As a result, he has improved more than any runner on the team. He is now consistently running times that are more than two minutes faster than he was running as a freshman.”
Krieger earned All-PAC honorable mention for his performance in the PAC championship race during his sophomore year.
Looking ahead to the rest of the 2017 season, Krieger has high expectations for both his team and himself. He would like to see the team win the PAC championship race to keep their eight-year winning streak
going.
Krieger’s goal in 2017 is to achieve a new personal best by beating a 25:45 time in the 8k race.
Herr has no doubt that Kreiger can help lead the team to reach those goals.
“Alex is well-liked and respected by his teammates and they respect his work ethic,” Herr said. “He is more of a quiet leader than a vocal leader. He leads by example, and he helps to address matters on the team behind the scenes. We have great team chemistry this year, and I attribute much of that to the leadership of Alex and the rest of the seniors.”
Krieger agrees that his leadership is more subtle than most. He tries to set examples for his teammates by putting positive effort into the smallest things.
“I come to practice everyday with the intention of getting better and I play it smart on recovery days,” Krieger said. “Nutrition and sleep are very important aspects as well. I try to do the right things outside of running.”
Krieger, who has a 3.9 GPA and earned NCAA Division III Academic All American Honors in 2016, admits that the commitment to cross
country is challenging.
“It’s a long season and we run over 60 miles a week,” Krieger said. “Balancing staying healthy and staying in shape is extremely important.”
Krieger is from the South Hills of Pittsburgh and is a graduate of Chartiers Valley High School, where he ran on the track team for four year and ran three years on the cross-country team.
Krieger, a business economics major with a minor in mathematics and finance, interned for PNC Bank’s online banking division in the summer of 2017. Afterwards, PNC offered him a full time position as a digital product
manager.
Krieger and his teammates return to action Saturday Oct. 7 at the Carnegie Mellon Hampton Inn Pittsburgh Invitational at Schenley Park.
Photo: SVC Athletics