Bryan Harmon Post-Race (UCF Cross Country Invitational)

all right coach how does it feel now to have your first you home meet under your belt yeah the home meet itself was um great it it was a little stressful obviously all day getting the course ready we had two or three bouts with the rain but as far as the actual race itself off without a hitch um couldn't ask for better weather probably in the month of August it could be hotter it could be more humid um so we'll we'll take it so as far as from o this a season opening standpoint Izzy gets you in an individual top 10 n Ninth Place just how would you evaluate her you talked about her stepping up being to a team leader this time around so how has that gone so far for her today yeah you know I don't know the answer to that yet honestly we'll evaluate that over the next day or two we'll talk about it at practice on Sunday there were some good parts of her race but you know when I asked her when she finished I said are you are you satisfied or she immediately said no um which was good and I said good you shouldn't be um but she had some good parts and we just need to continue to build on those positive parts of the race she's 70 80% there we just have to get that other 20% it's the hardest 20% but she has the ability to do it she has the the the mindset to do it she's just got to put those two things together and make it happen and um we were hoping for maybe a little bit closer to 90% today but we we'll we'll stick with 80 we'll be we'll be all right with 80 we're going to be a different team in four weeks we know that so we're fine we'll evaluate and uh we'll move forward but listen she she needs to be our number one Runner and she was today so we can't falure for that so the so the team ended up picking up 85 points to finish third place behind Florida and FSU obviously both of them powers in the distance world but when you look at the what you saw from them in comparison to all the other teams what was the biggest takeaway that you've had uh they're deeper um those two teams are obviously deeper than us um and we have a lot you know we talked about it the other day uh on your show we you know we have eight freshman out there right and the Freshman who ran well today um were were great the only problem was those were the ones I didn't necessarily didn't necessarily expect to run as well as they did and the ones I thought would didn't so that's what you get with a young Squad um but there's definitely positives to take away from that um when you talk about having that many freshmen um our sophomore Abby Clemens stepped up today you know and we talk about taking that that jump from freshman to sophomore year saying to yourself Hey listen I'm not I'm not a a low-key freshman anymore I know I know the game I know what to expect I know what's at of me she stepped up today and performed at that level and we needed her because we had some other Runners who may we maybe expected to be our number two runner who didn't do that today yeah and you know you mentioned the runners Ava ended up being your top Runner to getting up in getting helping get a score for the team what did you see out of her today that could both well going forward grit nothing but grit um and she's a tough kid I think and she proved it to me I thought she was but she definitely proved it out there not only to me but probably to herself and her teammate so I think she's going to have some teammates that really look at that and say okay if she can do it I can do it if she can step her game up I need to step my game up and that's what you want you want people you want that contagious component when people are stepping up to the plate and performing at a high level maybe when you're not necessarily expected to um and if we can get those others you know performing like that expecting to perform like that that's the thing we need them to expect to perform at a high level and I think some of our freshmen had some some scared eyes today which it's okay it's okay it's okay to be a little uh a little frightened in the first ever Collegiate race but it's over now we moved past it Florida State in four weeks and we'll be a different team then than we were today would you say that's the biggest thing you learn that you learned about this team or is it something else that you really learned about this team today um no I think that's probably it I think I think that you know we maybe were just a little a little more frightened than we should have been or or needed to be and like I said said there's nothing wrong with it as long as we learn from it um and I and I suspect that we will and like I said we'll practice on Sunday we have our long run Sunday morning and we will talk at length about the positives and the negatives uh of today but first meet you expect the mixed bag course wasn't running crazy fast um sun came out and it was one or two people that uh you know needed some medical assistance uh good thing we had the EMTs here but U so it's not like it was crazy good race conditions but you have to be able to rise above those not good race conditions and we had some people do it and some didn't and we need to have everybody do it because we don't have the depth that Florida and Florida State have so we need to be firing on all cylinders all the time and today we did so that so obviously you know you talk about going over go more in depth later but as far as from a knee-jerk St standpoint if you had to describe one thing now that you want to see that is different with with this team between now and FSU what would it be the overall belief the belief that they belong that they belong on the start line with schools like Florida State and Florida does it mean that we go out there and expect to beat them no it doesn't but we need to believe that we belong on the start line with those schools when we go to the regional meet you know we talk about the regional meet being a big goal of ours because the Big 12 is so tough right we can run great at the Big 12 and still get pounded by nationally ranked teams right um but the regional be gives us another opportunity to see some of the re you know the teams from Florida the teams from Georgia from Mississippi Alabama Tennessee that you know we're a little familiar with and that we want to make sure we beat and so we need to believe that we belong on the same start line as them and not just oh well they're here and we'll just be here and as long as we beat USF and as long as we beat ston we're satisfied we have to get out of that mindset all right awesome best of luck with that question appreciate you man