Noah Affolder’s freshman struggles help in 2nd year

Noah Affolder’s love for running began in the fourth grade — running with his grandfather.

About a decade later, at the NCAA Pre-Nationals in Madison, Wisconsin, Affolder crossed the finish line in 24 minutes and 26.3 seconds, the second best time among Syracuse runners and good for 35th overall.

For Affolder, it was more than another solid showing in what has become a breakout sophomore season. He recorded fourth and fifth place finishes at the Harry Groves Spiked Shoe Invitational and the Coast-to-Coast Battle in Beantown, respectively. Last year on the same course in Madison, at the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational, Affolder made his collegiate debut. But he placed 217th out of 234 runners, more than a minute and a half slower than he ran in Madison this season.

“There were definitely some flashbacks of this is where I blew up last year,” Affolder said. “People started calling me a high school burnout.”

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Affolder was a dominant runner in high school, winning a cross country and an indoor mile state title in Pennsylvania as a senior. Affolder’s success meant that, going into his junior year of high school, he was already looking at colleges, with Syracuse at the top of his list.

Syracuse was only an hour away from his home at the time, in Watertown. Affolder was so impressed by the program and the coaching staff that he committed during his junior year.

“I just felt like Syracuse is a place where you can build your own legacy,” Affolder said, acknowledging 2017 seniors Colin Bennie, Philo Germano and Justyn Knight.

Initially, it would take some time for Affolder to contribute as he started his freshman year injured. Tendonitis in his peroneal tendon, the outside of his ankle, kept Affolder sidelined for six months, costing him training time in the summer before his freshman year.

Combined with a slow and careful rehab, frustration began to mount for Affolder. The adjustment from the best runner in high school to barely qualifying for the ACC Championships proved to be a challenging transition, Affolder said.

By the start of the outdoor track season in the spring, Affolder knew he had to make a change. That’s when he saw a sports psychologist four or five times.

“That’s what I needed at the time, someone to listen to what I was going through,” Affolder said. “She was someone who didn’t know me at all, but could understand the situations I was going through and could give me an outsider’s perspective.”

Using some of the techniques he learned to clear his mind before competitions, Affolder was able to have a more successful outdoor track and field season. The season culminated in qualifying for the NCAA steeplechase final along with one his mentors on the team, junior Aidan Tooker.

“It’s really awesome going out and competing with someone that you are really confident in,” Tooker said of Affolder. “Whatever you’re gonna give that day that he’s gonna give the same or better.”

This past summer, Affolder was able to train extensively rather than spending it injured like last year. It gave him the preparation he didn’t have going into his freshman year.

Now, as arguably the Orange’s second best runner behind Tooker, Affolder is as important as ever. Helping fill the leadership void left by Knight, Germano and Bennie is part of what Affolder attributes his strong sophomore campaign to.

And as Affolder continues his breakout season, he stills remembers the valuable lessons a difficult freshman year brought.

“It was more frustration that I wasn’t good enough at the time to be running,” Affolder said. “That just made me more determined to be successful.”