Four-time Olympian and college phenoms from Sussex County inspire youth runners

NEWTON — One of the mantras of X-Treme Youth Running Camp is to dream big. In its 15th year, the annual get-in-shape and get-motivated camp headlined three speakers who professed just that on Tuesday, Aug. 4: an Olympian and two college runners who got there start in Sussex County.

The first speaker was Marcus O'Sullivan, who has a farm in Sussex County, coaches at Villanova University and represented his native country of Ireland as a four-time Olympian and world renowned runner.

The next two motivators were college runners with very impressive running stats and blow-your-mind running ambitions. Both Dylan Capwell, who will be a junior at Monmouth University, and Sarah Disanza, who will be a junior at The University of Wisconsin didn't dance around the subject.

“I want to go to the Olympics,” Capwell said.

Plain and simple as that. Without a moment's hesitation, Disanza echoed his sentiment. “Me too.”

O'Sullivan spoke of growing up with little money but with a whole lot of determination and how his quest for the Olympics began on a long walk with his father one Sunday when his dad said 1980 would be too early but he thought his son could make the 1984 Olympics.

“We never spoke of it again,” O'Sullivan said, but that planted the seed.

In his years of racing — 30 back-to-back seasons to be exact — O'Sullivan said there were times of discouragement and times when he drew on some interesting things for inspiration.

“You learn the most about yourself, not just as a runner but as a person, in times of distress,” he said.

O'Sullivan gave the campers a blow-by-blow of an Olympic qualifier race where it was sheer determination and the will to win that earned him third place and a birth on the team.

When 11-year-old camper, Molly Latincsics, of Hampton, asked him what had inspired him to become a runner, O'Sullivan said, in addition to his father's words, “Where you are growing up watching football and baseball on TV, when I grew up, we'd watch track and field.”

O'Sullivan's personal best for the mile, is 3:50.94, and his personal best for the 1500 meters is 3:33.61.

Like O'Sullivan, Disanza's dad was her first inspiration with the sport.

“He made up what he called 'The Running Game' and would have me run and he'd make up times and each time I'd get faster,” the Wantage native said. “I was an Energizer Bunny type of kid, so the game was pure genius.”

Disanza came into her own with the sport while at High Point Regional High School. There she won eight individual championships including placing three times at the Meet of Champions and twice at the Nike Northeast Regional Championships one of which finishes earned her All American status.

Her passion for the sport catapulted her into the college running scene at The University of Wisconsin where she placed second at the NCAA Cross Country Championships in 2014, third in the 5,000-meter run at the NCAA Indoor Track Championships in 2015 and ran a time of 15:20.57 in the 5,000 to win the Boston University Opener and break both her school and Big 10 record. Disanza urged campers to “personalize your training,” pay close attention to nutrition and water and most of all, “Be a student of the sport... I'm constantly learning.”

For Capwell, who grew up in Hopatcong, coming to speak at X-Treme Running Camp was a walk down memory lane as he attended the camp for five years.

“I remember when I was sitting where you are today at this same camp. Work hard and you'll have a great season,” he said, “Get control of your nerves on the starting line and most of all, have fun with running.”

Capwell is looking to build on his impressive sophomore season at Monmouth, where he was the NCAA national runner-up in the 800 at the Indoor Championships, set multiple Armory records in the indoor season, and was both the MAAC Indoor and Outdoor Track MVP.

Capwell was also an outdoor All-American last year after advancing to the NCAA Finals as a freshman. This is all very impressive but may not have happened if it weren't for Monmouth's Assistant Track and Field Coach, Chris Tarello, who saw talent in Capwell as a senior in high school.

“In high school, I didn't look at running like I do now,” Capwell said. “I'd show up for a workout and do what the other guys did.”

College was a whole new ball game. Though Capwell made the NCAA Nationals his freshman year, his performance fell short of his ability, so it was time for a new strategy. At the prompting of, ironically, O'Sullivan, Tarello sought out exercise physiologist Shannon Grady, and blood lactate testing during workouts started for Capwell.

“Every eight weeks or so, I'll do 800 intervals with each one getting 10 seconds faster,” Capwell explained. "The only rest I get is when they test my blood between them which is like 15 seconds at most.”

Torello uses the results from the tests (just a prick of the finger) to formulate workouts most suited to Capwell. It's been working: that along with Capwell's incorrigible work ethic.

“No one is really just born a runner,” he said, “You have to put in the work.”

This is a trials year, Capwell said of his upcoming junior year at Monmouth, ”And I want to qualify.”

Though he's vacillating as to which event would give him the best shot — his coveted 800 or a step up to the 5,000 meter — Capwell is determined to toe the line at one of the sports most famous venues: Hayward Field in Oregon.

Both he and Disanza don't say they want to run in the Olympics casually: they've made a deal with themselves to do all they can to make that dream come to fruition.

A respectful sense of their goals and determination came from O'Sullivan. A speaker at X-Treme Running Camp for the past 14 years, he's busy and usually has to head to his next appointment after he speaks. Not this year.

“I'm sticking around to hear what these two have to say,” he said. “It's amazing to see such talented young athletes with this incredible work ethic and determination for the sport.”

X-Treme Youth Running Camp is held each year the first week in August at Lodestar Park in Newton.