Fresno State cross-country coach Sean McManus said running always came easy for him. He ran in “turkey trots” as a kid, fluidly with little effort.
And Lyndsie Etherton, a Bullard High graduate who got her first taste in elementary school participating in “fun runs,” found running came natural for her, as well.
“I was better at it than any other sport,” she said.
Fresno State, gearing up for the upcoming season, features a roster of homegrown talent — runners from local high schools who know how to run the local courses and under the hot Central Valley sun.
Running might come natural, though the challenge of the sport lies in the intricacies that come with conditioning, said senior Danny Vartanian, a Buchanan High graduate.
“You have to do the little things,” said Vartanian, who estimates he’s logged more than 10,000 miles since coming to Fresno State. “You can’t stay up late. You can’t be partying. You have to eat right and just take care of your body.”
Those little things include an offseason fueled by self-motivation. Per NCAA rules, coaches are not permitted to run summer workouts. Runners have to maintain their mileage as they progress toward the start of the season.
“If your not willing to work hard, in particular when people aren’t looking, then you’re not going to be very successful in cross-country,” McManus said “It takes a big commitment all summer. We can’t sit around all summer and then just show up to practice.”
The benefits come during the season.
“It’s so satisfying being able to run every day in practice and seeing it pay off when we’re in the actual races,” Etherton said.
Fresno State opens the season on Sept. 14 when it hosts the Fresno State Invitational at Woodward Park — the site of the 2014 Mountain West Conference Championships on the dirt-and-grass course that Vartanian has ran on since third grade.
The Bulldogs host San Jose State, CSU Bakersfield, Cal State Fullerton and William Jessop College in the introductory meet of the season.
Vartanian is expected to have a big season. “He’s been our No. 1 guy, at times, throughout the last couple of years,” McManus said. “We expect him to be up there.”