Austin Abbott Gears up for MPFS

Sophomore Austin Abbott gears up for the Moutin Pacific Indoor Track and Field Championships.

Abbott is the third Husky in school history to run a sub four minute mile.

Feb. 24, 2006

Go Huskies.com: How big of an accomplishment was running a sub four minute mile for you? Austin Abbott: \"Pretty big, not that many people have done that. It is something that I can hold on to forever.\"

Go Huskies.com: Was this an accomplishment you have aimed towards for a long time? Austin Abbott:\"Yeah, about the end of the last indoor season I started thinking been thinking about it.\"

Go Huskies.com: When did you know that you could break the four minute mark? Austin Abbott:\"My coaches told me over the summer that they were setting up a race for me to try to do it. They set up the race and fortunately I was able to do it during the race just as planned.\"

Go Huskies.com: It seemed like the field went through the first quarter a little fast, did that worry you? Austin Abbott: \"Not really, I heard a lot of times but I didn\'t really pay attention to them. There were so many people racing the whole time, I was just trying to run my race.\"

Go Huskies.com: What kind of training have you done during the winter? Austin Abbott:\"No not really, I trained pretty much the same as last year.\"

Go Huskies.com: Have you started to taper yet? Austin Abbott: \"No, I won\'t start tapering until the end of the spring.\"

Go Huskies.com: Are you planning on running the mile at the NCAA Championships? Austin Abbott: \"I don\'t think so, I think that we will run the DMR.\"

Go Huskies.com: Is that the team\'s focus, running the DMR? Austin Abbott: \"We are going to Notre Dame next weekend to try to qualify , and I think that we will. If we don\'t qualify , I will run the mile.

Go Huskies.com: What are the team\'s chances of qualifying? Austin Abbott: \"Pretty good, it would take something bad for us not to qualify. That is the only time we are going to run it, we have to run a certain time to get into the NCAA Championships.\"

Go Huskies.com: You placed second as a freshman in the 1,500 meters at last year\'s Pac-10 meet. Does that give you confidence going into Saturday\'s mile? Austin Abbott: \"I beat a lot of guys that I didn\'t know, and they were really good. It was a big deal to me, being able to run that well.\"

Go Huskies.com: What are your goals for the upcoming 2006 outdoor season: Austin Abbott: \"I would like to win a Pac-10 Championship, like Ryan (Brown). Other than that I would like to be an All-American in outdoor track because it is something that I have not done yet.\"