Varsity - The Official Digital Magazine of Wisconsin Athletics

LUCAS AT LARGE peace with my decision. I feel like this is best for me, my fam- ily and the rest of my career. "Luckily I have a lot of amaz- ing teammates that I will be able to cheer on at the trials. I told them all that I'd better be the only one sitting home in August ticked off I'm not (in London).'' Since leaving Madison, So- linsky's base of operations has been Portland, Ore., where he has trained under former UW cross country head coach Jerry Schumacher. Among his Oregon Track Club teammates are for- mer Badgers Matt Tegenkamp, Tim Nelson and Simon Bairu. "Portland is where I plan on being until I'm done running,'' said Solinsky, a Stevens Point native. "Once I'm done, I'll prob- ably come back to the Midwest and settle down. My dream would be to coach at Wisconsin. "That would be my end-all, be-all.'' Solinsky returned to the state to attend the marriage of his fa- ther and then gleefully extended his trip to be one of the return- ing UW alums who were invited to hand out medals at the Big Ten championships last week- end. Ahmed was delighted to get his award from Solinsky. "I've always looked up to Chris,'' he said. The respect is mutual. Knowing Ahmed has met the Olympic standard in the 10K, he said, "All the Badgers in Oregon — we call ourselves the West Coast Badgers — are pretty darn excited for him. I knew he was a very quality athlete. But to come 12 » VARSITY MAY 17, 2012 "Once I'm done, I'll probably come back to the Midwest and settle down," Solinsky said. "My dream would be to coach at Wisconsin. That would be my end- all, be-all.'' out in your first race and pop something like that was pretty incredible.'' For perspective, Ahmed fin- ished sixth in the 10,000 meters at the Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational in late May. He ran 27:34.64. A fellow Canadian, Cameron Lewis, was the win- ner in 27:27.96. Two years ago, Solinsky won this 10K race in 26:59.60; an American record (which has since been broken). "Mick is doing a great job of managing the season,'' Solin- sky said of UW cross country coach Mick Byrne's timetable for Ahmed. "Someone like Mo has a chance to win the NCAA title, but you have to manage the energy because you only have so many hard efforts in you. "We looked at regionals as a preliminary — do all the dirty work and get ready to perform at nationals. They've taken a good approach with Mo by taking it one step at a time; not be- ing overzealous, but just being patient. I think it's going to work out well for him. "You've already seen the fruits of that labor this year." If Ahmed does get to Lon- don as a member the Canadian Olympic team, he can count on Solinsky pulling for him. Ahmed has gotten that message already. "All those Badgers in Port- land,'' he acknowledged, "are al- ways emailing and Facebooking and offering us a lot of encour- agement.'' Solinsky has never been one to hide his emotion, or true colors. "I'm always going to bleed red,'' he promised.

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