Sometimes it’s not the finish, but the leadership an athlete displays.

He’s known as “The Beast” or “Granddad” by the freshmen on the team.

Whatever he’s called, junior men’s track and field captain Chris Wesson is definitely an important part to men’s track and field’s 800-meter crew.

Wesson finished second in the 800-meter run (1 minute, 54.70 seconds) at the Ohio Valley Conference Indoor Championships last year. He finished second in the 800 (1:53.24) two weeks ago at this year’s OVC Indoor Championships.

Last year, he missed first by two hundredths of a second. This year, he lost first to teammate David Holm.

But when his teammates and coaches, the members of the 800-crew, were asked about Wesson, their first response was that he was that he’s a good captain, a good leader.

“He gets you motivated without being a jerk or anything,” said freshmen 800 runners Mike Connolly and Jason Springer. “He leads by example.”

Wesson describes the 800-crew as a combination of the whacky, crazy personalities seen on the long distance crew and the sprinters, who appear to have a chip on their shoulders.

One of the guys that has helped him throughout the year the most has been the very guy that beat him out for first: David Holm.

Wesson said Holm has been by his side for much of the year for practice and has been a great help, as he is a great runner himself.

“It’s not really that I’m beating out a teammate,” Holm said. ‘”It’s that we trained all year for it. It’s just a race and it came down to that I beat him out.”

Holm said as a group, they do their long runs together and the two will usually lead the group together.

“He always gets on everyone to make sure that they’re doing their thing and is always motivating people,” Holm said.

Men’s head track coach Tom Akers said he brings a lot of leadership to the 800-crew, which he believes to be a closely-knit group.

“That crew has done a really good job in bringing in some team unity and of course Chris is a really big part of that,” Akers said.

As far as racing, Wesson contributes losing to Holm to also running the 1,500-meter race and feeling just a little too tired to make the first-place finish.

“It’s a real intense race,” Wesson said. “As an 800-runner, it’s like the Marines. You can do the 400, you can do the mile.”

When he lost the 800-meter last season, he remembers losing control of the race in the final 20 meters.

“You’re running as fast as you can and you can’t even feel your legs,” he said.

Unlike last year, where Wesson described his running style as being a sitter (he would wait until the latter part of the race to sprint), he is trying to change that strategy.

So far, he said he is happy with how it’s working out.

“He definitely has the ability to make it to the NCAA level and compete with the best athletes in college,” Holm said.

But for now, old “Granddad” Wesson has more modest plans and hopes to run near 1:50 in the 800-meter run.

800-meter runner Chris Wesson shows off some of his OVC metals that he has won over the last four years as other 800 runners look in envy before practice on Wednesday evening at the Lantz Fieldhouse. The team-oriented Wesson insisted on having his Top Cat

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