Aidan Tooker focuses on finishing kick ahead of NCAA Regionals

Twice this season, Aidan Tooker had the chance to win. Twice, he’s missed out on victory by a combined eight-tenths of a second.

Tooker, a junior, has taken the lead role for Syracuse’s No. 12 cross country team after the departure of Justyn Knight. Tooker has finished in second at the Coast-to-Coast Battle in Beantown and NCAA Pre-Nationals. He wants to get over his tight losses by using what he learned about finishing from Knight.

As competitive as he is, Tooker isn’t disappointed with the narrow second place finishes. Part of what makes Tooker SU’s premier runner is his ability to lurk around the top places for the majority of a race, then kick in the final 200-meters to overtake the runners ahead of him.

“I try and set myself up where most of the guys are doing as much of the work as possible early on until that last pivotal moment,” Tooker said. “I wanna be right there and have the most energy at the point.”

Tooker learned a lot about lurking and kicking from Knight, even though he hasn’t quite “mastered” the art of kicking yet. Redshirt sophomore Joe Dragon said Tooker has the best kick on Syracuse, saying he has “the most raw speed.”

Strong kicks are a point of emphasis for SU, as first year head coach Brien Bell frequently uses the phrase, “Eat off everyone else’s plates before you eat off your own,” Tooker said.

“It’s kind of like playing the field, racing the field, conserving energy, setting yourself up to use your skill set against a field of really well-rounded, really good athletes,” Tooker said.

For Tooker, having strong kicks relies as much on having the right mental approach as it does having the right physical tools. The Orange don’t practice kicks often, but on rare occasions Bell allows the team to run the last rep of a difficult workout untimed, allowing Tooker and his teammates to simply run as hard as they can.

“It’s the mentality and it’s also the confidence you build from those workouts,” Tooker said. “You kinda push through and have little breakthroughs that you take with you and hope you can replicate in races.”

On Oct. 26, Tooker finished eighth at the ACC championships. He didn’t have a chance to use his kick.

The NCAA Regionals in Buffalo this week present another chance, as Tooker aims to break his victory funk this season.

“I take little confidence boosts from the little victories,” Tooker said. “But I definitely want to win.”