What has been your favorite moment over the past five years?
Runco: My favorite moment was running my 8K personal record at ACCs which was a couple weekends ago. I ran 24:10 for the 8K, which was a good 22-second PR. That was my last chance ever to run an 8K, so I'm glad it ended well and I improved a lot. My first 8K was 27 minutes or so, maybe even slower. To work my way down to 24:10 was a pretty good experience - a good feeling.
What has been the biggest surprise?
Runco: The coaching changes. The right people came into play, and those people are the reason that I'm still in this sport and stuck through it until my fifth year. I'm very fortunate to have knowledgeable people who are directing so much of my training. The coaches I've had have been more in tune with what I have to do and other commitments; they've let me have schedules that favor what I'm trying to do. I've succeeded in the classroom and PR-ed in a lot of events. It was definitely a change for the better.
Do you have a favorite part about being a Pitt student-athlete?
Runco: Pitt is a good school. I was able to get the best of both worlds: pursue a sport I really care about at a high level and work toward a degree. Pitt provided what I wanted, a serious program and good academics.
How have you changed as an athlete during your time at Pitt?
Adams: I came from a smaller school, so there were only three runners on my high school team. For me, it was more about being a team player and having girls to lean on, because I never really had that. I changed from just relying on myself to relying on my teammates and having a backbone - people to pull me through and pick me up when I was down. That's definitely the biggest change for me.
What has been your biggest accomplishment?
Adams: Being a student-athlete has helped me in the academic field. I've been told that I will be the first student-athlete to graduate in my major, and for me, that's huge. That shows that you only need one person to believe in you to get the job done.
Adams is a Communications Science Disorders major, with the goal of becoming an audiologist
Do you have a favorite part about being a Pitt student-athlete?
Adams: It's the holistic view about being a student-athlete. I take pride in going to class without showering [after practice]. I take pride in wearing my gear around. I take pride in getting on the bus and off the bus and having the chance to represent Pitt at different locations. That's something that not a lot of students get to do.