Addie Smith | Sports Editor
Duquesne graduate student and former cross country team member Jim Spisak won Pittsburgh’s Great Race this past Sunday.
Spisak, who will be on the winter and spring track and field teams for Duquesne, finished the race in 28:53.79, over a minute ahead of second place finisher Trent Binford-Walsh, who won the race last year.
“It was good to be racing again,” Spisak said. “It was my first race since August … It was good to race again, that’s really the reason that you run, is to race. You really just want to get a couple races in here before track season starts and I get back into the usual collegiate competition.”
Spisak qualified for the NCAA Tournament in cross country last fall, where he placed 59th out of 245 runners with a time of 30:25. His time at the Great Race would have placed Spisak fourth at the tournament last year.
Spisak said that he has begun training for the winter and spring track seasons.
“Right now I’m pretty much training like I did when I was on the cross country team, I’m doing the workouts with them and everything,” Spisak said. “[I’m] … maybe not racing quite as much, but I mean I’m still doing relatively similar training. We might start training more for specific track races in October, November, then I might race once in December before I take a break. After that, that will just get us right into the winter season.”
