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In right direction When Lonnie Greene was named Purindoor schedule, Greene is looking for due's coach two summers ago, he came his athletes to build off the success that in with a vision to compete with the Big his distance runners enjoyed during the Ten's best. The goal was to bring the fall cross country season. cross country teams out of the conferIt's an approach that sophomore Caleb ence cellar and elevate the track and Kerr believes will serve Purdue well as field squads from the middle of the pack. it transitions indoor this winter before With the indoor track and field seaheading outdoors in the spring. son beginning and the cross country "Cross country is really where you put schedule in the books, Greene believes all the building blocks together toward he is seeing movement in the right dia successful track season," Kerr said. "I Lonnie Greene rection across the board. Both the men's think that I ran some of my best races and women's cross country teams had their best indoor last year off of my cross country strength." finishes at the conference meet in over a decade There is still plenty of work to do for Greene and while the track and field team features a number his staff, but there are certainly signs of progress of athletes who are expected to be among the Big in the year-and-a-half since they made the move Ten's best. from Arkansas to West Lafayette. Purdue's progress was on full display in the first "Honestly, in the team meetings that we've week of the indoor season as the Boilermakers had, I've complimented the work, especially that swept all four of the conference's weekly individu- our men did in cross country," Greene said. "What al awards, taking each of the men's and women's they accomplished this fall, it may not be as sexy runners and field athlete-of-the-week honors. as some others. But that's a group of individuals "That's huge, any time you get recognized by that were coming from ninth or 10th, the bottom your governing body and to have young people per- rung, moving to the middle of the Big Ten. That's a form the way they did, that's huge," Greene said. great start for us. "To sweep it, I know it's the first week of the year, "In terms of the goals that I've had, I think we're the performances really deemed those accolades. moving in the right direction." It just tells us that we're doing it the right way." — Brandan Alford As the Boilermakers move into the heart of the better group of guys to go out and work together every day and bleed for each other on the cross country course than this group of guys right here." The sense of chemistry among runners McClintock found at Purdue has transcended his experience, both on the course and off. Whether getting together to watch football or play a game of pingpong in the dorms, McClintock and his teammates have developed a sense of family in their short time together. And just like any set of brothers, a healthy level of competition permeates even the simplest of activities. "Something always evolves into some form of f competition," McClintock said. "Being in the backyard playing corn hole or ping-pong or going bowling, or just seeing who can get to the top of the rock wall first, there is always some form of competition when we hang out." That competitive nature is what left McClintock wanting more, even after one of the most decorated years by a Boilermaker harrier in over three decades. His No. 37 finish at the national meet was just the most recent accomplishment in a string of events that included finishing second at both the Big Ten Championship and NCAA Great Lakes Regional this fall. Before that, his summer included IllustrateD volume 24, issue 3 89