NCC Spotlight: Cross Country's Matt Perez

For the third time this season, men's cross country student-athlete Matt Perez has been honored as the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin Men's Cross Country Runner of the Week.

Perez secured the honor after placing fourth at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh Brooks Invitational on Saturday at the Lake Breeze Golf Course in Winneconne, Wis., helping the top-ranked Cardinals win the meet, featuring 434 runners and 47 teams. The junior paced the Cardinals, finishing the 8,000-meter course in 25 minutes, 7 seconds.

This is the third CCIW Runner of the Week honor for Perez this season. He was also honored on Sept. 20 and Oct. 4 while teammate Tim Hird garnered the award Sept. 7.

The Cardinals are off this week as they gear up for the CCIW Championships, taking place Oct. 29 at Chicago's Montrose Park.

Congratulations on your third CCIW Men's Cross Country Runner of the Week award. What kind of boost have the honors given you and what has each one meant to you? Thank you. Personally the honors don't really mean much to me. I know it's a wonderful thing to be granted the Runner of the Week three times but my confidence doesn't come from that, it comes from my team. Personally, what I don't like about the award is that I'm singled out from my teammates but without them this opportunity would never be possible. I enjoy receiving the awards but not much confidence is gained from them.

Is Matt Perez just getting started this year, in full stride or exceeding expectations for this point in the season? I would say the year just started over the last week or so for me. I've put in a lot of work throughout the summer and during the fall to get to this point in the season where races are beginning to count and we're getting closer to the national championship.

The UW-Oshkosh Brooks Invitational was a pre-nationals performance gauge in a way, right? What did you and the team learn about itself, if anything? Yes, Oshkosh was considered almost as a pre-national meet this year. As a team we loved the fact that we could go preview the course this year and start visualizing in our minds what we need to get done for the national championship. I think we took away a lot of positives from this experience which will definitely help us get ready for nationals.

What's the goal and/or purpose for the CCIW Championships as the team eyes the national meet? The goal for us is to just have another race-like experience under out belts before approaching regionals and nationals. We view the CCIW Championships more as part of out training as we eye the national championship.

How will the weather play a role in the team's performance in the weeks ahead? The weather is something that will play a great role for our team in the next coming weeks. We look at weather almost as an aid because we know other teams will let this affect them mentally. As a team, I feel we are always mentally ready for any type of weather so it is almost irrelevant to our team performance.