Dominating a single event is a tough task.

But after Syracuse’s recent success in the 5000-meter run, it looks like the Orange is starting to do just that.

SU distance runners Martin Hehir, Sarah Pagano and Max Straneva all raced to new personal bests in the 5000-meter run two weeks ago at the Stanford Invitational, before a break in action last weekend.

The three have gotten off to great starts to the season and will look to continue that in Chapel Hill, N.C., for the Atlantic Coast Conference Outdoor Championships this weekend.

“We came into this season wanting to do well at the ACCs points-wise for the team,” Pagano said. “This is one of our main goals this season, to do well this weekend.”

Hehir, Pagano and Straneva, as well as the rest of the distance team, seem poised for a strong showing after a successful start to the outdoor season.

In Stanford, Pagano’s 15:48.87 time in the 5000-meter run broke the school record. Meanwhile, Hehir’s time of 13:50.88 was just four seconds shy of the school record, and still one of the top times in the NCAA East.

And Straneva’s personal best time of 14:00.45 was just .45 seconds shy of his under 14-minute goal.

“Even though I just missed 14 minutes, it was still a really cool feeling to just know that improved a lot from last year,” Straneva said. “I think I’m in a lot better shape than I was last year at this time.”

SU head coach Chris Fox was very pleased with his runners’ performance.

Fox said all three had strong races, but he was especially impressed with Pagano’s record-breaking time.

“(Pagano’s) was outstanding — that was an incredible race. (Hehir), I give him a good B+ on that,” Fox said. “For (Straneva) that was an A race. Max was kind of the surprise of the meet.”

Since the Big East Outdoor Championships a season ago, Hehir and Straneva have both cut their 5000 times by more than 30 seconds, and Pagano by nearly a minute.

Pagano, a redshirt senior, believes the extra practice time she was given in the fall was a big factor in the drastic improvement — as she was able to run 70–80 miles a week.

That helped her build up her strength, a key aspect of Fox’s training regime that has been important to each runner.

“We do a lot of hill runs and a lot of mileage, but in a smart way,” Straneva said. “That helps build our strength, and be able to from start to finish maintain the same kind of effort.”

Fox believes that maintaining this workout is a great way for a player to improve throughout his or her career, and it’s evident that Hehir, Straneva and Pagano have.

All three have been running at SU for at least three years — Hehir three years, Straneva four and Pagano five — and all three are running at their best this season.

On top of their recent personal records, they’ve done more.

Hehir has set two school records in the indoor season. Pagano took first in the 3000-meter run at the Greg Page relays at Cornell and has six top-five finishes this year. Straneva set another personal best this season, and won the mile run at the Cornell Upstate Challenge.

All three qualified for the 5000m race at the NCAA East Preliminary Meet, and will be joined by fellow distance runners Margo Malone, Andrew Palmer and Daniel Lennon.

Led by the recent success of these three, Syracuse has six runners qualified for the 5000, the most the team has in any event.

“We learned the hard way during the indoor season that if you don’t have a good day, you’ll get beat up pretty bad,” Straneva said. “I think even though the conference is really good, we have a good chance to do big things.”

Published on April 17, 2014 at 1:46 am