‘One of the best recruits we’ve had in a long time’
Photo via University of Victoria.
“I was one of the slower runners on the team,” were surprising words to hear from one of Canada’s brightest young cross country (XC) running stars — Vikes freshman Ian McAllister — when he spoke about his elementary school running days.
Now, McAllister is the reigning two-time Ontario High School Cross Country Champion — only the twelfth runner since 1957 to win the senior men’s event back-to-back, at what’s widely considered one of the premier high school meets in North America.
Then, last March, he represented Canada at the World Athletics U20 Cross Country Championships in Serbia where he finished as Canada’s top runner — placing forty-sixth in the world.
“[He’s] one of the best recruits we’ve had in a long time in terms of coming out of high school,” said Vikes’ XC & Track head coach Hilary Stellingwerff, a two-time Olympian runner herself.
It wasn’t always clear that McAllister would commit to UVic, said Stellingwerff, who coached Canada and McAllister at the U20 world championships in Serbia.
“Everyone’s going to go after him as a recruit,” she said, referring to the interest he sparked across North America.
But after speaking with and touring multiple schools — including the University of Michigan, where his older brother attends — several factors led to McAllister choosing UVic. Apart from the fact that he “really wanted to be out west,” Stellingwerff — who is also from Ontario — knew both McAllister’s high school running coach and parents.
While many Canadian athletes of McAllister’s caliber are attracted to attending American NCAA (National Collegiate Athletics Association) schools, Stellingwerff thinks that opportunity is one advantage of McAllister remaining north of the border.
“It’ll be good for him because he’ll get great exposure [and] make an impact on our team right away,” said Stellingwerff. “If he went to an NCAA school, he would have had to wait his turn to even just make the [starting] top seven at some of the big schools.”
Making an impact right away is exactly what McAllister did in his Vikes debut at the Vancouver Spirit Run on Sept. 22. His time of 26:07 was the fastest of any Vikes runner, placing third of 81 total runners in the men’s XC 8k.
McAllister’s lean, 6’3” frame, which looks built specifically for efficient distance running, tells only part of the story of his athletic genes. His mother Kubet Weston won four World Championship medals in rowing for Canada, and qualified for the 2000 Sydney Olympics. After suffering a last-minute injury which kept her from competing in the Games, Weston and her husband decided to remain in Australia for a period of time — which is where Ian and his brother Heath were eventually born. Originally from Nigeria, Weston is considered a pioneer and advocate for diversity in Canadian rowing.
McAllister’s own athletic ascent wasn’t always so obvious — even to himself.
“Before high school, I wasn’t the best runner,” he said, recalling that he didn’t win a single race until exploding onto the scene and going undefeated in his grade 12 high school season, which he capped by winning the Ontario provincial XC championships, and then returning to do so again in his grade thirteen year.
As a Vike, however, McAllister is focused on helping the men’s XC team win the Canada West Championships in Edmonton this October, before making a charge toward nationals.
Although Stellingwerff is excited to see what McAllister can do, and thinks “he’ll eventually dominate U Sports,” the overall depth and strength of the entire Vikes men’s XC team this season is the reason Stellingwerff thinks they have a legitimate chance to be a top three team at nationals.
“Cross country is such a team sport — that’s what makes it exciting,” said Stellingwerff, who explains that the scoring system for a XC race is dependent on all of the team’s runners, not just one or two, finishing the race in a strong position.
The Vikes’ team culture at UVic, explained McAllister, will be pivotal in their drive toward nationals — especially when the team’s training days get tough.
“There’s definitely a big team feeling here, [we] do all the workouts together … it just makes you want to come out to practice every day, [and] helps you get through some of the tough practices.”
Although daily training can be a grind, McAllister said that some of the science and technology which helps inform professional and Olympic level runners’ training is beginning to trickle down to Canadian U Sports — specifically here at UVic, where the XC & Track team works alongside one of Canada’s top sports physiologists: Coach Stellingwerff’s husband, Trent.
“Trent’s great, because he has that PhD knowledge of physiology,” said Stellingwerff. “You don’t learn that as a coach … so it’s awesome to have a physiologist to give that feedback. Then we can tell the athletes, this is what we’re doing and why we’re doing it.”
“If the athletes know the ‘whys,’ they’ll buy in a lot more.”
McAllister says he and his XC teammates alternate between easy pace running days to elevate their aerobic base, to hard running days to build up a lactic threshold, which he says allows him to run faster without feeling like he’s working as hard. The week is rounded out with recovery days and then strength days, when the runners are coached on form and improving their running economy.
Correct form, pace, and a race strategy, particular to a given course — which always varies from XC track to track — is a lot to focus on when preparing for a race. But when it comes to being in the moment during a given race, McAllister said he performs best when he’s simply not thinking at all.
“I just clear my mind and stop thinking about anything, and just run.”
Part of what makes McAllister unique as a runner, said Stellingwerff, is his “race intuition” and a competitive drive that you either have or you don’t. “You can’t train that [skillset],” she said.
Beyond the team goal of reaching the podium at nationals, McAllister said he also has his eye on taking home the U Sports top XC rookie award at the end of the season.
The Vikes’ next XC race is the Stewart Cup in Calgary on Oct. 12.
