GNAC meet schedule (PDF)
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By MARK MOSCHETTI
Seattle Pacific Sports Information
 
SEATTLE – How much is too much?
 
When it comes to Turner Wiley and running, it depends if one is asking him …
 
… or asking his Seattle Pacific coaches.
 
"I'm definitely a guy who does have some natural talent when it comes to endurance … especially during the summers when I'm running in the 90s," the Falcon senior said of how many miles he logs on local roads and trails.
 
But sometimes, less is more – though that can be a tough selling point to a guy like Wiley.
 
"My first impression of Turner when I got here (in late 2013) was that he was so eager," said Falcons assistant Chris Reed, who works with the team's distance runners. "Every time there was a workout, he wanted to do one more rep. Every time there was a training run, he wanted to run it that much faster than everyone else.
 
"With his eagerness and drive and his intelligence to train well, we've struck a really nice balance the past couple years," Reed added. "It's not just that he can out-work people. He can out-heart people. It makes it so much more special (as a coach) when the people who work the hardest end up running the fastest."
 
Wiley will bring his drive to the oval one more weekend as a collegian when he and the rest of the Falcons head to the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Championships. The meet at Western Oregon University's McArthur Field in Monmouth begins Friday at 2:00 p.m. in the field and 2:45 on the track. On Saturday, field events start at 9:00 a.m., running at 11:00.
 
The native of Issaquah, just across Lake Washington from Seattle, will go as far as he can both days: 10,000 meters Friday evening at 6:20, and 5000 Saturday afternoon at 1:10.
 
"I'm trying not to think about it too much," Wiley said of SPU finale. "On our workout a few days ago, I finished up and Chris was like, 'Well, that's the last real workout you'll have – you're 10 days out from the 10K.'
 
"It kind of snuck up on me," Wiley admitted. "It'll hit me more once we get down to Monmouth."
 
RALLY TIME AFTER INJURY
At least when that realization does hit Wiley, it'll do so in his mind, and, no doubt, in his heart, too.
 
It won't, however, hit him on the left knee. That knee and a bed frame smacked hard into each other when Wiley was climbing to the top bunk in his dorm room one night after his freshman cross country season in 2011.
 
That collision resulted in bursitis, sidelining him for all but one indoor meet and the entire outdoor schedule in 2012. It  ultimately led to surgery that summer.

 

Even with some limited cross-training, Wiley wasn't able to run for about nine months from the time the injury happened – and subsequently lost almost all of his training base.
 
"I think I was starting from Square One," he said. "Even the bike irritated it – I couldn't do any of that motion."
 
Finally, the guy who lives to run was able to get back at it again.
 
Slowly, but that hardly mattered.
 
"That first 10-minute run I did – it was the best thing in the world," Wiley said. "I don't care how slow I was going.
 
"I was like, 'Thank you for making this work,'" he added, looking skyward.
 
As is usually the case with most any serious injury, getting past the mental barriers was just as challenging as getting past the physical ones.
 
"I remember Dr. (Justin) Rothmier (who works with Falcon athletes) telling me the pros and cons of surgery," Wiley said. "One of the keys was usually wherever you get surgery done, it's not the same as it was before. I think that was the biggest concern I had. I didn't know what the knee was going to feel like, or if it was ever going to be the same again."
 
BIG DECISION – BUT AN EASY ONE
The only way to find out for sure was to try it in a race. In late October of 2012, Wiley did.
 
He had gotten back into training during that fall's cross country season, though hadn't competed. The thinking was that he would redshirt and preserve the year of eligibility.

 

But as the Falcons got ready for the GNAC Championships, they were contending for a spot among the top five teams. If they could finish in that group, they would travel to Hawaii for the NCAA West Regionals. Anything below that and their season would end at the conference meet in Yakima.
 
When one of the runners left the team shortly before GNAC, then-head coach Erika Daligcon discussed the situation with Wiley, making it clear that while the Falcons would love to have him on the course, he would have to look at the big picture, and then decide:
 
Keep the redshirt and extra year of eligibility … or run the race with a decent-but-not-guaranteed chance of making regionals.
 
Ultimately, it wasn't a tough call.
 
"I opted to do it for the guys," Wiley said. "I felt it was definitely the thing I needed to do for them.
 
"When I got hurt freshman and sophomore year, (the team) is what really kept me going," he added. "A lot of times, I wanted to quit. I was injured, wasn't going anywhere, couldn't run. The team kept me in it, especially (fellow Falcon) AJ Baker. He really helped me through it, and the team helped me push through that."
 
Wiley wasn't among SPU's five scoring runners that day, but was the No. 6 team finisher and No. 64 overall as the Falcons did indeed take fifth place and earn the Hawaii trip.
 
FROM RECOVERY TO RECORDS
Wiley was back on the track as the calendar flipped to 2013. By that autumn, he was the front runner on the cross country team, a position he maintained (with just a couple exceptions) throughout that season and all of the next one.
 
This past winter and current spring, Wiley is making the most of the extra year of eligibility he was granted for track because of the injury.
  On Jan. 29 in the UW Invitational, he became the first Falcon to break 15 minutes for an indoor 5000, clocking 14:56.77. The old record, set in 2013 by good buddy Will Harrison, was 15:00.96.
 
Wiley broke another record – this one was his own – on April 1 at the San Francisco State Distance Carnival when he finished 10,000 meters in 30:53.09. His previous PR was the school-record 31:03.68 he ran on the same Cox Stadium track last April 3.
 
This year's 10K in Frisco also put Wiley on the NCAA Division II provisional qualifying list, the first time he had accomplished that.
 
"I definitely wanted to give it a shot to make nationals – or at least get on the list," Wiley said.
 
His biggest remaining to-do item is the 47-year-old school record in the outdoor 5000, which Walt Notter set in 1969 at 14:39.6. Wiley comes into Monmouth off a PR of 14:51.42 set on April 14 in Azusa, Calif.
 
If he gets it, that'll be three school records. And if not, well …
 
… he's still be leaving with two.
 
"Turner has been such a joy to be around and have on our team – great team leader, and just a lot of fun to talk shop with," assistant coach Audra Smith said, adding that when she first arrived just prior to the 2013 cross country season, "We had a lot of conversations to get him on a plan that worked for him and get him started on a great trajectory and a really good career."
 
DEFINITELY NOT DONE RUNNING
After starting as a nursing major, Wiley made a switch and will earn his degree in food and nutrition sciences. He worked as a dietary aide at Seattle's Harborview Hospital last summer. Eventually, he would like to get into the University of Washington Hospital system, where both of his parents are nurse practitioners.
 
"The medical field has always been where I knew I was going to end up," he said.
 
While his Seattle Pacific career is ending up in Monmouth, Wiley's running career is far from done. Long-term, he's thinking half or maybe even a full marathon.
 
But for now, he's not quite ready to leave the track behind.
 
"I still want to break four minutes in the 1500 (his PR is 4:02.65). And especially in the 10K, I would love to break the 30-minute barrier. Once I do that, I would be fully content with moving up to a half marathon."
 
That's a whole lot more miles still to go – some might even say too much.
 
But when it comes to Turner Wiley and running …
 
… it's never too much.