Ryan Urie feels that teammate Martin Hehir has a chip on his shoulder heading into the final week of the outdoor regular season.

Hehir — who placed fourth in the Big East Outdoor Track and Field Championships last year before winning the 2012 Big East Cross Country Championships in November — is now facing more pressure and higher expectations in his sophomore season.

When the Syracuse track and field team travels to the Big Red Invitational at Cornell this weekend, Hehir will not be competing. He is sitting out because, aside from needed rest, he has his eyes set on something else — a Big East Championship.

“I’ve done a lot more training and miles this year, and I definitely think I can do better than fourth,” Hehir said. “I’m running a lot faster timewise, too, than I was last year, so hopefully I can come out with a win.”

This past weekend, Hehir was a part of a select group of SU runners who competed at the Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, Calif. The annual race, founded in 1959, is known for its global prominence “where the world’s best athletes compete.” U.S. track and field icon Carl Lewis still holds the meet’s long jump record, set in 1987.

Hehir finished 12th in the 5K at the meet, treating the competition-driven race as his final tuneup before the Big East Championships on May 3.

“Mt. SAC is a big race with a lot more competition, and you get used to getting beat or learning to hang on,” Hehir said. “I used the race as just another step before Big East, where I know I’ll be able to run with everyone.”

The race was Hehir’s second 5K race since the Stanford Invitational on March 30, and warrants a break this weekend.

Head coach Chris Fox said his team uses the Big Red Invitational to get a little sharper for the Big East Championships. While it’s important from an emotional standpoint for his runners to be running well going into the Big East, Fox is more concerned with his stars, like Hehir, resting rather than competing after an exhausting final month.

“The people that aren’t running are usually veterans who are prepared for the Big East,” Fox said. “Or there is someone like (Hehir) who is sitting because he has run two big races this season and needs to take a bit of a break. Plus, he has a lot of work to do next week.”

In Hehir’s two outdoor 5Ks this season, he has finished on average in 13:54.18. When he finished fourth in last year’s Big East Championships, he finished in 14:27.17.

The time discrepancy is due to “championship-style racing,” as Hehir describes.

“Championship-style racing is totally different,” Hehir said. “You are not trying to run your best time, you are trying to win.”

The first half of last year’s men’s Big East 10K race went out slower than the first half of the women’s race.

In a race all about place, not time, the men’s competitors usually hold back and wait until the last 5K or mile to kick it into gear. From there, it’s an all-out sprint, a unique spectacle in the season’s seemingly monotonous nature.

Last year, Syracuse took second, third and fourth place in the 5K. Finishing ahead of Hehir for SU was Tito Medrano and Pat Dupont.

While Hehir was a contributor on the 5K squad last year, this year, he will be relied on to lead the group through the tactical race and win gold.

Said Fox: “This year, he is our lead man, so to tell you the truth — and I think he would agree — anything short of a win would be disappointing.”

Published on April 24, 2013 at 11:29 pm

Contact Bryan: bwrubin@syr.edu