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GOLD AND BLACK ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 27, ISSUE 3 83 surprised her a little bit. But the goal now is to have con- tinuity of performance and in training and keep thing going for the next six months." 'BIG SHOES TO FILL' Replacing Matt McClintock wasn't going to be easy. The former Boilermaker was a three-time All-Amer- ican, one of the best in the Big Ten, and the country, since his arrival at Purdue. But Jaret Carpenter helps to ease the loss. "He's a gritty, tough, fierce competitor, resembles a lot of the kind of runner that Matt McClintock was," Kent said. "That's what really excited me during the recruiting process, when you have to replace a Matt, those are very big shoes to fill. So when we got a com- mitment out of Jaret in January (a year ago), that was obviously a huge feather in our cap." That was so then and has proven to be so now. Car- penter finished 16th at the Big Ten Championships, held just 20 minutes from his home in Wayzata, Minn., with his time being the fourth-best among freshman. At the NCAA meet, he was 209th, the 29th-best rookie, both marks short of what he had hoped after having a breakthrough regular season. "I didn't feel very good about it," Carpenter said. "I didn't do as well as what I should have done or as well as I hoped to do. I think part of that was that my first 10K in cross country was the week before and it's a pretty fast recovery time to the next 10K, which is nationals, so my legs were kind of shot. I went pretty deep at regionals just to get to the national meet, so looking forward, I would say that — I will be in better shape next year — hopefully I can get to the national meet a lot easier next year, so I'll have more in the tank." Still, Carpenter's rookie campaign was a great start to his career. He came in with solid credentials, winner of the mile and two-mile at the Minnesota state cham- pionships as a senior, yet the transition to collegiate cross country running isn't an easy one. The bump in mileage is the biggest change, going from about 50 miles a week in training to 75. "I didn't really know what to expect, because I had heard a lot of different things about D-I running," he said. "Some people said that it's really tough your freshman year because of all the changes you're go- ing through. But I guess I expected to — needed to be — a scorer, possibly top three on the team. I didn't know that making it to Nationals was a possibility until midway through the season when workouts were going really, really well and I was racing with people who had made it there before. Going into the season, I didn't expect as much." But expectations now have increased on the track. Carpenter is not yet sure of the events he'll focus on in Year 1 — the mile, 3K and 5K are indoor distances, while the 1,500 meters, 5K and 10K are outdoors — but Kent says it might be a variety. "That gives us a very good indication of what we re- ally want to focus on and where those times stack up in the conference to where he can be most effective to score," Kent said. "… He had a great cross country season, what I think he can do on the track is going to be equally as special." In Terre Haute, Benner and Carpenter didn't have teammates to rely on during their races — Purdue squads didn't quality for the championship meet — but they had each other to lean on. They could chat a bit, try to get as mentally prepared as possible, commiserate over the nasty weather and cheer each other on. And that was the latest piece of a friendship that started on an airplane from Minne- sota. "It's been fun," Carpenter said. "It's been nice to have a Minnesota tie, because sometimes you can relate a little better, just to things back home. If high schoolers are doing really well, you can talk about that. It's nice to have another person on the team that can relate." And for Purdue, the pair gives the Boilermakers a couple bright young athletes to help lead the distance runners for years to come. "Tremendously happy," Kent said. "They're incredi- bly valuable assets to the team. Any time you come in as a freshman, as an 18-year-old typically, there's a big transition that you have to go through, from a training standpoint to a lifestyle standpoint, and they've han- dled that adjustment very, very well. "To come in and do what they did this year was just an outstanding representation of what they embody as a student-athlete and a competitor." j