Profile on CSU standout 800 meter runner Ryan Friese (with audio)

Friese leads the 800m down the final stretch at the MWC championships. (CSU Media Relations).

In collegiate track it’s not uncommon for freshman athletes to switch events. The 4:20 miler moves up to the 5,000 meter, the 200 meter dash specialist tries his hand at the 400 meter, the discus thrower will also throw the hammer.

But a triple jumper moving to the 800 meter?

Meet CSU standout Ryan Friese.

Ryan Friese

Friese is the recently crowned Mountain West Conference champion in the 800 meter indoor with his sights set on an outdoor championship this spring. A junior, Friese did not start running the 800m until after his freshman year (audio).

A Rampart High graduate, Friese was recruited by CSU for his talent in the triple jump and 4x400m. And he did not disappoint his freshman year at CSU.

During the indoor season, Ryan jumped 13.95 meters in the triple jump to finish eighth at the MWC championships. Friese finished the outdoor season with second place finishes in the triple jump at the Rob Upton and Jack Christiansen Invitationals and an eighth place finish at the MWC outdoor championships. He had a personal best jump of 14.15m.

But for all the success he had as a jumper, his coaches thought his talent could be used elsewhere on the track.

“We started to notice right away after his first year that any of the conditioning workouts [he did] he was extremely good at and extremely tough,” said head track & field coach Brian Bedard.

Bedard let Friese compete in the triple jump and 400m his freshman year, but the coaches were closely monitoring how he handled the tougher running workouts.

“Ryan was somebody we had watch run in the 4x400m. I guess what he showed there was speed, which is important. We knew he had speed, but what he really showed was toughness,” said distance coach Bryan Berryhill. “He would just run guys down. He would make it look pretty easy.”

And so the coaches got together after the outdoor season Ryan’s freshman year and decided the best move for him was to jump up to the 800m (audio).

“We just mainly saw he has the speed, he’s got the toughness. Let’s find out if we can get him trained on the distance side and if we can, we think he can be pretty good at it,” said Berryhill.

The next step was convincing Ryan the move was a good idea.

It took a little convincing

Ryan had only run two 800m races before taking up the event full-time as a sophomore in college.

“I had run one one time in a high school indoor meet. I really just went out there and kind of followed pace. I really wouldn’t even call it running; it was a pretty slow time,” Friese said.

Friese ran his second 800m in the indoor season his freshman year at CSU. Ryan had a slight muscle twinge and the coaches felt it may be aggravated if he ran the 400m, so they put him in the 800m as a workout at the Green and Gold inter-squad meet.

“My coaches are like, ‘well we’ll just put you in there and see what happens,’ so I was pretty nervous when they first did that just because you hear all these bad things about how hard an 800 is,” said Friese. “I was like ‘alright whatever I’ll go out and kind of lay it out there.’ So that actually ended up pretty well. But then I was like, ‘whatever I’ll still be a triple jumper.’”

But the coaches had different ideas and after the conference meet his freshman year, coach Bedard pulled Ryan into his office and told him the coaches had made the decision that he would be the 800m runner.

“It’s one thing for the coaches to see that, OK I think that’s where he has some talent, then it’s another thing to convince the athlete that, OK that’s the move that we think you need to make,” said Bedard. “He took it pretty well, better than most.”

Friese said he acknowledged the coaches were giving him his scholarship, so he would do what they thought was best for him and give 110 percent.

“Sometimes athletes will half-heartedly embrace the idea, but he just kind of trusted the staff,” said Bedard. “I said, ‘Ryan, when we do make this switch, we need you to buy in whole-heartedly or it will not work.’ That was the biggest thing that’s led to his success at this point, is that he’s absolutely bought in 100 percent.”

The transition

Coach Bedard said it is not uncommon for athletes to change events from high school to college, especially moving up in the distance events. But the transition from triple jump to 800m is a tough one, he said.

“That happens pretty frequently; moving from high school events to college and making a change,” said Bedard. “That change [Ryan’s] is a pretty big leap. Body type wise he looks more like an 800 meter runner, or a miler even.”

And so, no longer a triple jumper, Ryan went from triple jump and 400m workouts consisting of some sprints, a couple 400’s and six 200’s to 12 mile long runs and six, one-mile repeats.

“You got to make sure to get the strength side of it and the distance training,” said Berryhill. “He’s adapted great to that.”

Friese said adapting to the longer distance workouts was the biggest challenge.

“At the beginning, the biggest challenge was going from like eight miles a week up to 20 miles at first, then 40 miles, then up to 65 miles this past fall. So from a physical standpoint, ramping those miles up was a pretty big challenge,” said Friese.

It is Ryan’s work ethic, Berryhill said, that has made the transition go so smoothly.

“He’s willing to try about anything you ask him to do and more often than not, he’s able to pull it off,” said Berryhill.

Bedard gives kudos to Berryhill’s coaching.

“Berryhill has done a great job of transitioning him to the 800. He’s obviously got him comfortable with that event,” said Bedard. “It’s been a huge success story. It usually doesn’t turn out quite that well quite that fast.”

Quick success

With distance training under his belt (a season of cross country) and confidence in his abilities, Ryan was ready to hit the ground running in the 800m his sophomore year.

During the indoor season, he placed twice in the 800m with a fourth-place finish (1:56.19) at the Air Force Invitational and a third-place finish (1:53.53) at the MWC indoor championships. He was named all-MWC in both the 800 meters and 4x400m relay.

It was during the outdoor season where Friese blossomed into a true 800m runner and grew to love the event.

“My favorite thing is just being able to push myself every week, just going out and trying to get a new p.r. [personal record] That’s what I run for every week – just trying to get a new personal best every time,” Friese said.

Friese never finished lower than third place and won four times during the 2008 outdoor season. His times included a first-place finish (1:52.07) at the Jack Christiansen Invitational, first place (1:50.38) at the Front Range Championships and a second-place finish (1:49.70) at the MWC outdoor championships, where he was out-leaned at the fin

And Ryan has kept improving ever since. Before the 2008 indoor season Ryan told Bedard he was going to win conference.

“I said ‘Ok this kid’s pretty brash.’ But you love that confidence,” Bedard said.

Being confident, Friese said, is his biggest objective while running in the big races.

“As long as I believe in the race that I can finish and I can run a certain time, that’s half the battle right there. Just staying positive I feel is my big thing,” said Friese.

Ryan stayed true to his word and captured his first MWC title this indoor season; the lone Ram to do so. He ran an indoor personal best time of 1:51.17 while leading the entire race.

Friese running the 800m at an indoor meet during the 2008 season. (Courtesy of CSU Media Relations)

Still learning

This is only Ryan’s second season of running the 800m and he is often times competing against runners who have run the race since high school. The experience just isn’t there, so he must learn on the run.

“He’s still learning that part. I would say that’s what we lack right now; the experience of racing 800’s,” said Berryhill.

In many of Ryan’s races, he has been the fastest runner in his heat, so he’s grown accustomed to leading the race – a place he feels comfortable.

“All last year he didn’t have a real fast time. By the end of the year he got fast, but before that a lot of these invitationals we’d run, he would be in the slower sections, so he’d have to lead the races,” said Berryhill. “So right now, he’s comfortable at the front of a race when he’s leading it.”

Berryhill said Friese needs to improve running in a pack with runners as good or better than he is.

“Where’s he’s not comfortable right now is when he’s in a race with equal, if not better guys of say eight or nine. Running against guys that are every bit as good, they’ve got the foot-speed you have, they also have probably been training for the 800m longer, so they’ve got the strength and a little more knowledge on the race strategies,” said Berryhill. “He struggles right there. We’ve still got to learn how to run in a pack: what to do, what not to do, when to make a big move, when not to.”

Ryan echoed the same challenge.

“In the smaller meets I’m fine; I can just go out and lead from the front. I can run my own race. But when I start getting into competition, fighting for position and going at a pace that maybe I’m not used to – that’s probably the biggest challenge right now, just trying to still figure out how to run it in the bigger races,” said Friese.

Becoming a leader

Another challenge for Ryan is stepping up into a leadership position – a role his coaches already see him fulfilling.

“The next step in his junior and senior year for us is to take a little more of a leadership role,” said Bedard. “When he talks I think people will listen because they respect him as a person; they respect his talent on the track and where he’s come from and the success he’s had. Kids are more eager to listen to that than someone who maybe hasn’t gotten it done or doesn’t lead on the track.”

Berryhill, who is also Ryan’s cross country coach, said Ryan is a very good leader.

“Ryan’s a very good leader. I’m not sure he’s a ‘Ra Ra’ type of leader, but he’s the guy that just goes out there and shows you how to do it,” said Berryhill. “He’s a good example for the other athletes of taking on a task that is very difficult and being excited about it, being optimistic about it, so I think he’s a great leader to have.”

Ryan looks forward to the prospect of leading his teammates.

“There’s kind of two ways – just leading with experience because I’ve been around a while, so I’ll be able to help the younger guys a little bit. Also, from the hard work and the performance aspect. I like to think that the story is kind of inspiring. I started out as a triple jumper and I’ve put in a lot of work in the past years to get to the conference champion aspect,” said Friese. “I like to hope that a lot of the younger athletes can look at that and put up the work and dedication I’ve put in and kind of will follow in that same direction.”

On future

Ryan has lofty goals for the outdoor season: win the MWC championship, hit a 1:47, make it to nationals and become an All-American – all goals his coaches think he can attain.

“I think he’s poised to go to nationals, I think it’s time in his career he does that. That’s kind of the next step as he gets better,” said Bedard.

“I think a realistic goal for him is to run in the high to mid 1:47’s,” said Berryhill. “And I think the ultimate goal is to make it to nationals.”

Regardless of the outcome of Ryan’s outdoor season, his coaches will use his story of talent, adjustment, determination, attitude and competitiveness with his teammates and future Rams.

“I said to the whole team. If everyone can compete with this kind of passion and intensity, I said we’d be in great shape,” said Bedard. “He knows how to put in on the line.”

“He’s a good story. I use his example a lot, not only with our current athletes, but with our recruits: where he was, where he is now and kind of why he got there,” said Berryhill.