Prep Paying Off For Morano

This season Matt Morano has sustained a level of success on the track that had not come so easily in his first two years at The Heights.

Experiencing personal bests in all of his events, and continued growth throughout the year, the junior credits a greater level of preparation that began once the 2016-17 campaign ended.

"He came to me at the end of last year talking about preparing for the upcoming year, what he wanted to do in the summer, how he wanted to train in the fall," explained men's track & field head coach Matt Kerr. "So, he really started to think ahead in terms of his goals this year. Now, he's done the work in advance and it's really paying off."

"Last season I finished pretty strong, but I knew there was a lot of room for improvement," said Morano. "When I went into the summer I kind of was just much more motivated than past years. Working with my coach and talking with teammates about the goals you could set, what I could have achieved, and it was a lot better than it was last year. I just put my head down and worked a lot harder over the summer."

Morano put a focus on doing more mileage work over the summer and in doing so returned to campus in much better shape, allowing him to keep pace with the rest of the team in workouts.

With a focus on being consistent, smart, and staying healthy, he was able to see early positive results which just served to push him more, as he was determined to continue to show better results in all aspects of his training and at meets.

"Once you start seeing results you want to continue to do that," expressed Morano. "Each meet helped make me feel a little bit stronger, but it was also the knowledge that you work the whole summer and the whole fall, you helped build to where you were, to where I became now."

At the first indoor meet, the BU Season Opener, all of the hard work came to a head as he finished second in the 600 meters, breaking the school record with a time of 1:19.54.

Morano's next chance to shine was the Dartmouth Relays, where alongside junior Ian Ritchie and freshmen Yahya Solimon and Michael Hains they finished first in the 4x800 meter relay with a time of 7:53.95.

It was this way for much of the indoor season as he would roll to personal bests in the 500 meters (1:04.25 at BU Four Way Meet), 800 meters (1:51.31 at Terrier Classic) and 1000 meters (2:25.05 at Valentine Invitational) as well.

His 4x800 relay team, this time with Hains, Ritchie and junior Andrew Willis, also grew stronger, posting a 7:40.03 and finished third at the New England Championships.

"I think the consistency comes from the fact that he put his head down and really built a big engine this past fall," said Kerr. "He's reaping the rewards. Every week he's getting more excited and more excited and it's just paying off."

Now on the verge of the outdoor season, and feeling as strong and confident as ever, Morano is setting his sights on big goals as he looks to remain consistent through the end of the year.

"I think it was a great indoor season and it helped to boost everyone's confidence and be excited. I think the transition to outdoor, everybody is going to be really pumped up and ready to go," said Morano. "I'm hoping to go sub 1:50 (in the 800 meter), hopefully make NCAA regionals. But, just taking it one step at a time."

Good luck to the competition in keeping up with those steps.

Boston College Athletics

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Michael Hains

Ian Ritchie

Yahya Solimon

Andrew Willis

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