Running Through Life
5/11/2017 12:29:00 PM | Track & Field
With her final championship season set to begin on Friday, redshirt senior Annemarie Schwanz is looking to close her career with the high-level performances that have exemplified her time as a student-athlete at Fresno State.
When athletes achieve certain goals in their careers, breaking through barriers they once never knew that they could, the real question for them is what happens after that wall is broken? While some stagnate, resting on their laurels, others push harder, test their limits and are never satisfied.
Â
As fifth-year senior Annemarie Schwanz winds down her track and field career at Fresno State, it is as if she has only begun, yet she has accomplished so much.
Â
"The success that I've had the last couple years, it's all paying off when I look at all of the workouts and races," Schwanz said. "I'm not saying that it comes easy, all of the work is just paying off… In races, I don't think that I have to win, I'm just thinking about the next 100 meters."
Â
On the eve of her final Mountain West Outdoor Track and Field Championships races, the civil engineering graduate student holds eight school records that range from 800 meters on the track to 6,000 off of the track in cross country. Resting more during her final season than she has in the past, prepping her body for the rigors of championship season, Schwanz is ready for the final push of her collegiate career. If it's anything like her races throughout the years, it could leave on-lookers at a loss for words.
Â
From Germany to America
Â
The "little runner," as she has often been referred to by professors and peers in the Lyles School of Engineering, came to Fresno State wide-eyed, unsure of what she was getting into after moving more than 5,600 miles from her home in Neuruppin, Germany, a small city about an hour northwest of Berlin.
Â
Schwanz grew up in an active family, running road races, biking and rock climbing. She also competed for a local volleyball club, but on the track was where she found her calling. Starting at an early age with a track club, she competed in all events finding success in the high jump, long jump, but especially the 800 meters. Knowing that the jumps were likely not her in future due to her height, she moved strictly to the 800 in ninth grade, training for the event three to four days per week.
Â
With her abilities developing on the track, Schwanz left home after ninth grade and attended Sportschule-Neubrandenburg, a four-year boarding school for elite athletes less than two hours from home. With a structured environment that focused on sport training, she began competing at higher levels than before. At SC Neubrandenburg, she was a part of a 4x800-meter relay team that won a German national championship and she finished fourth in the 800 meters at the German youth championships.
Â
It was not until during this time that she learned that she could receive a scholarship to compete and attend school in the United States. She had never thought much about running beyond her time at SC Neubrandenburg but when she started receiving emails from coaches across the U.S., she began to consider her options. With roughly 30 coaches from across the states contacting her, she remembers former Fresno State distance coach Sean McManus being one of the first. One of McManus' biggest advantages in the recruitment of Schwanz was his recruitment of fellow German Stella Kubasch, another 800-meter runner. Although the two were not close by any means given the distance from their hometowns and being a year apart, they knew of each other from competitions. The successful recruitment of Kubasch led to Schwanz deciding to join the Bulldogs for the 2012-13 season.
Â
While Kubasch did not remain in Fresno beyond her freshman season, Schwanz did, yet it was not without her questioning her decision. She admits that her first semester was "tough." One of the biggest obstacles she had was the language. While she took English classes growing up and could understand it, speaking it was different. It proved to be a challenge. And although she was open to new cultures as her family traveled a lot growing up, living in the U.S. was not something she had ever encountered.
Â
"I had a few weekends where I really missed home," Schwanz said. "It was pretty bad.
Â
"For me, it was either I do one year or all four years, and now I'm in my fifth year."
Â
What got her through the tough times was when the outdoor season started in the spring. After utilizing a redshirt during the indoor season in the winter, she felt more at home on the track during the spring, around more of her teammates and coaches who soon became her family away from home. That spring she also produced times that put in her in the school's top 10 in the 800, 1500 and 3,000 meters.
Â
Hitting her stride
Â
During the 2014-15 season, she broke her first individual record at Fresno State, and then her second. With records in the 1500 and 5,000 meters in hand with two years of eligibility remaining, it was only a matter of time before others began to fall. She wasn't one to look at them though until recently when she started to realize how close she was. Records have fallen simply as part of the process. To this day she still has three types of goal—minimum goals, O.K. goals, and maximum goals. It was something she learned from McManus to keep her focused and not get frustrated.
Â
"That helped because if you don't achieve the maximum, then you're still okay, at least you got this goal," Schwanz said.
Â
Like continually setting and hitting goals, one of her biggest assets that has helped her to continue to progress has been the consistency in her life. Whether it's simply setting goals or maintaining her level of performance in the classroom where she graduated last year with a 3.66 GPA in civil engineering and currently boasts a 4.0 in the master's program, Schwanz lives the life of an elite athlete and knows that there is a reason for everything that she needs to do.
Â
"She understands that it's not just what you do during practice time," said Fresno State distance coach Christine Engel. "She's very good with her time management, very aware of how much sleep she is getting each night, conscious of eating the right things. She realizes that the little things aren't so little, they pay off in a big way."
Â
If she under-sleeps, does poorly on an exam, does not put the right food or drink into her body, has a poor training session, it can slightly alter her physically, psychologically or emotionally on race day. At a level where even tenths-of-a-second are hard to remove from personal bests and separate reaching prelims or finals, winning or losing, consistency has been essential to Schwanz's success.
Â
At the 2016 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championship finals of the 1,500 meters, she deviated from that, allowing the environment to affect her emotions.
Â
"I usually don't get nervous before races, I get excited, but in Eugene I got really nervous," she recalled. "I knew that I was one of the faster runners but when you see everyone on the track and in the stands, it's just different."
Â
Despite the nerves, she still finished seventh to earn All-America honors, a feat that any athlete would be proud of. What separates Schwanz from many though is that she is rarely satisfied, believing that she can do better and has vowed that nerves will not play a part in her performances — belief in her routine and ability will.
Â
The day after the championship meet, Schwanz flew home to Germany to see her family for just over a week before returning to Fresno. While her final year of competition was less than three months away, she returned to begin an internship with C2 Consult, a local civil engineering firm. She was also awaiting who her new distance coach would be after McManus announced that he would step away from coaching at the conclusion of the 2015-16 season.
Â
"I was pretty disappointed when Sean left," she said. "I didn't know who was going to come. It was pretty devastating. I thought why wouldn't he stay to finish me out?"
Â
New beginnings
Â
The announcement of the staff's newest addition came on Aug. 17. Having never had a female coach and her having a different mentality than her previous coach, Schwanz did not know what to expect. With Engel just coming off of working with elite an elite 800-meter runner at Duke in Anima Banks, she had a feeling of one thing that would change; moving back to once again running the 800 rather than the 5K during the track season, a nervous yet welcomed change.
Â
During the ensuing weeks and months of the cross country season, the two began to understand one another more which helped their communication. Success ensued as Schwanz broke her school record in the 6K on three occasions, earned All-Mountain West and All-Region honors for the first time in her career. The understanding between coach and athlete continued to grow throughout the track season as many times, Engel and Schwanz have traveled to meets that the rest of the team was not competing in.
Â
"I think we communicate really well, there's a level of trust that we've developed," Engel said. "I know that she has her goals set high and she knows that I want to get her there.
Â
"To her credit I think that she's embraced the changes I've brought and has looked at it as a positive."
Â
When track season rolled around, Engel used the less is more approach with Schwanz when it came to the number of meets she would compete in. A strategy used on elite distance runners, it helped limit the senior's workload and stress on her body early in the season to keep her fresh for May and June.
Â
"[Annemarie] gains a lot of confidence in consistent training," Engel said. "She breaks down the training process to the point that she doesn't need to race every weekend to know where she is at."
Â
Appearing in only two indoor meets, the senior broke school records in the 3,000 meters in Ohio at the SPIRE Division I Meet (9:33.77) and followed that up by winning gold in the mile at the MW Indoor Championships in dramatic fashion at altitude (4:42.68).
Â
Prior to this week's conference meet, she's run four times during the outdoor season, once in the 800 meters, twice in the 1,500 meters and once as a leg on the team's 4x400-meter relay. In the first of the four races, she won the Stanford Invitational at the end of March, lowering her school record in the 1,500 meters to 4:13.82, a mark that stood No. 1 in the NCAA for two weeks. In her next race, she ran the 800 meters for the first time in two years. She placed second with another school record, clocking in at 2:04.65. Surprised at the time, it left her wanting more. In her final race, she ran a 55.9 split on the Bulldogs' 4x4 relay team at the Fresno State Invitational, her first relay since her freshman year.
Â
Headed into championship season, Schwanz and Engel set expectations high realizing that this is the last go around. While more may come from the "little runner" beyond Fresno State, whether it be on the track or as an engineer, the next month is what she has spent the past year working toward.
Â
"Just the Ticket to Build Our Community" – The Bulldog Scholarship Fund gives Bulldog alumni, fans and friends the opportunity to support Fresno State Athletics and the student-athletes who inspire them. For information about how you can support the Bulldog Scholarship Fund, please visit www.bulldogschoarshipfund.com or call 559-278-7160.
Follow us on:
Twitter:Â @FS_TracknField
Instagram:Â fresnostate_tracknfield
Facebook:Â FresnoStateAthletics
Snap Chat:Â FSAthletics
Â
Â
As fifth-year senior Annemarie Schwanz winds down her track and field career at Fresno State, it is as if she has only begun, yet she has accomplished so much.
Â
"The success that I've had the last couple years, it's all paying off when I look at all of the workouts and races," Schwanz said. "I'm not saying that it comes easy, all of the work is just paying off… In races, I don't think that I have to win, I'm just thinking about the next 100 meters."
Â
On the eve of her final Mountain West Outdoor Track and Field Championships races, the civil engineering graduate student holds eight school records that range from 800 meters on the track to 6,000 off of the track in cross country. Resting more during her final season than she has in the past, prepping her body for the rigors of championship season, Schwanz is ready for the final push of her collegiate career. If it's anything like her races throughout the years, it could leave on-lookers at a loss for words.
Â
From Germany to America
Â
The "little runner," as she has often been referred to by professors and peers in the Lyles School of Engineering, came to Fresno State wide-eyed, unsure of what she was getting into after moving more than 5,600 miles from her home in Neuruppin, Germany, a small city about an hour northwest of Berlin.
Â
Schwanz grew up in an active family, running road races, biking and rock climbing. She also competed for a local volleyball club, but on the track was where she found her calling. Starting at an early age with a track club, she competed in all events finding success in the high jump, long jump, but especially the 800 meters. Knowing that the jumps were likely not her in future due to her height, she moved strictly to the 800 in ninth grade, training for the event three to four days per week.
Â
With her abilities developing on the track, Schwanz left home after ninth grade and attended Sportschule-Neubrandenburg, a four-year boarding school for elite athletes less than two hours from home. With a structured environment that focused on sport training, she began competing at higher levels than before. At SC Neubrandenburg, she was a part of a 4x800-meter relay team that won a German national championship and she finished fourth in the 800 meters at the German youth championships.
Â
It was not until during this time that she learned that she could receive a scholarship to compete and attend school in the United States. She had never thought much about running beyond her time at SC Neubrandenburg but when she started receiving emails from coaches across the U.S., she began to consider her options. With roughly 30 coaches from across the states contacting her, she remembers former Fresno State distance coach Sean McManus being one of the first. One of McManus' biggest advantages in the recruitment of Schwanz was his recruitment of fellow German Stella Kubasch, another 800-meter runner. Although the two were not close by any means given the distance from their hometowns and being a year apart, they knew of each other from competitions. The successful recruitment of Kubasch led to Schwanz deciding to join the Bulldogs for the 2012-13 season.
Â
While Kubasch did not remain in Fresno beyond her freshman season, Schwanz did, yet it was not without her questioning her decision. She admits that her first semester was "tough." One of the biggest obstacles she had was the language. While she took English classes growing up and could understand it, speaking it was different. It proved to be a challenge. And although she was open to new cultures as her family traveled a lot growing up, living in the U.S. was not something she had ever encountered.
Â
"I had a few weekends where I really missed home," Schwanz said. "It was pretty bad.
Â
"For me, it was either I do one year or all four years, and now I'm in my fifth year."
Â
What got her through the tough times was when the outdoor season started in the spring. After utilizing a redshirt during the indoor season in the winter, she felt more at home on the track during the spring, around more of her teammates and coaches who soon became her family away from home. That spring she also produced times that put in her in the school's top 10 in the 800, 1500 and 3,000 meters.
Â
Hitting her stride
Â
During the 2014-15 season, she broke her first individual record at Fresno State, and then her second. With records in the 1500 and 5,000 meters in hand with two years of eligibility remaining, it was only a matter of time before others began to fall. She wasn't one to look at them though until recently when she started to realize how close she was. Records have fallen simply as part of the process. To this day she still has three types of goal—minimum goals, O.K. goals, and maximum goals. It was something she learned from McManus to keep her focused and not get frustrated.
Â
"That helped because if you don't achieve the maximum, then you're still okay, at least you got this goal," Schwanz said.
Â
Like continually setting and hitting goals, one of her biggest assets that has helped her to continue to progress has been the consistency in her life. Whether it's simply setting goals or maintaining her level of performance in the classroom where she graduated last year with a 3.66 GPA in civil engineering and currently boasts a 4.0 in the master's program, Schwanz lives the life of an elite athlete and knows that there is a reason for everything that she needs to do.
Â
"She understands that it's not just what you do during practice time," said Fresno State distance coach Christine Engel. "She's very good with her time management, very aware of how much sleep she is getting each night, conscious of eating the right things. She realizes that the little things aren't so little, they pay off in a big way."
Â
If she under-sleeps, does poorly on an exam, does not put the right food or drink into her body, has a poor training session, it can slightly alter her physically, psychologically or emotionally on race day. At a level where even tenths-of-a-second are hard to remove from personal bests and separate reaching prelims or finals, winning or losing, consistency has been essential to Schwanz's success.
Â
At the 2016 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championship finals of the 1,500 meters, she deviated from that, allowing the environment to affect her emotions.
Â
"I usually don't get nervous before races, I get excited, but in Eugene I got really nervous," she recalled. "I knew that I was one of the faster runners but when you see everyone on the track and in the stands, it's just different."
Â
Despite the nerves, she still finished seventh to earn All-America honors, a feat that any athlete would be proud of. What separates Schwanz from many though is that she is rarely satisfied, believing that she can do better and has vowed that nerves will not play a part in her performances — belief in her routine and ability will.
Â
The day after the championship meet, Schwanz flew home to Germany to see her family for just over a week before returning to Fresno. While her final year of competition was less than three months away, she returned to begin an internship with C2 Consult, a local civil engineering firm. She was also awaiting who her new distance coach would be after McManus announced that he would step away from coaching at the conclusion of the 2015-16 season.
Â
"I was pretty disappointed when Sean left," she said. "I didn't know who was going to come. It was pretty devastating. I thought why wouldn't he stay to finish me out?"
Â
New beginnings
Â
The announcement of the staff's newest addition came on Aug. 17. Having never had a female coach and her having a different mentality than her previous coach, Schwanz did not know what to expect. With Engel just coming off of working with elite an elite 800-meter runner at Duke in Anima Banks, she had a feeling of one thing that would change; moving back to once again running the 800 rather than the 5K during the track season, a nervous yet welcomed change.
Â
During the ensuing weeks and months of the cross country season, the two began to understand one another more which helped their communication. Success ensued as Schwanz broke her school record in the 6K on three occasions, earned All-Mountain West and All-Region honors for the first time in her career. The understanding between coach and athlete continued to grow throughout the track season as many times, Engel and Schwanz have traveled to meets that the rest of the team was not competing in.
Â
"I think we communicate really well, there's a level of trust that we've developed," Engel said. "I know that she has her goals set high and she knows that I want to get her there.
Â
"To her credit I think that she's embraced the changes I've brought and has looked at it as a positive."
Â
When track season rolled around, Engel used the less is more approach with Schwanz when it came to the number of meets she would compete in. A strategy used on elite distance runners, it helped limit the senior's workload and stress on her body early in the season to keep her fresh for May and June.
Â
"[Annemarie] gains a lot of confidence in consistent training," Engel said. "She breaks down the training process to the point that she doesn't need to race every weekend to know where she is at."
Â
Appearing in only two indoor meets, the senior broke school records in the 3,000 meters in Ohio at the SPIRE Division I Meet (9:33.77) and followed that up by winning gold in the mile at the MW Indoor Championships in dramatic fashion at altitude (4:42.68).
Â
Prior to this week's conference meet, she's run four times during the outdoor season, once in the 800 meters, twice in the 1,500 meters and once as a leg on the team's 4x400-meter relay. In the first of the four races, she won the Stanford Invitational at the end of March, lowering her school record in the 1,500 meters to 4:13.82, a mark that stood No. 1 in the NCAA for two weeks. In her next race, she ran the 800 meters for the first time in two years. She placed second with another school record, clocking in at 2:04.65. Surprised at the time, it left her wanting more. In her final race, she ran a 55.9 split on the Bulldogs' 4x4 relay team at the Fresno State Invitational, her first relay since her freshman year.
Â
Headed into championship season, Schwanz and Engel set expectations high realizing that this is the last go around. While more may come from the "little runner" beyond Fresno State, whether it be on the track or as an engineer, the next month is what she has spent the past year working toward.
Â
| ATHLETICS PROFILE • 2016 NCAA All-American (first team) – 7th place in 1500 meters • 2016 NCAA Cross Country All-Region • Two-time Mountain West Champion (2016 OTF 1500m, 2017 ITF mile) • Five-time All-Mountain West selection (1x 2016 indoor; 2x 2016 outdoor; 1x 2016 XC; 1x 2017 indoor) • Owns eight school records (indoor 1-mile, indoor 3000m, indoor DMR team, outdoor 800m, outdoor 1500m, outdoor 5000m, XC 5K, XC 6K) and ranks No. 2 all-time in the outdoor 3000m • 2017 Bulldog of the Year |
| ACADEMIC PROFILE • Currently in civil engineering master's program (4.0 GPA) • Bachelor's degree in civil engineering (3.66 GPA) • 2016 Fresno State Distinguished International Student Award recipient • Three-time Mountain West Scholar Athlete (2014/2015/2016) • Two-time MW Academic Team (2014/2015/2016) • Two-time USTFCCCA All-Academic Track and Field (2015/2016) • 2016 USTFCCCA All-Academic Cross Country |
| FRESNO STATE TRACK & FIELD/CROSS COUNTRY RECORDS Indoor Track & Field   • 1 Mile – 4:42.68   • 3000 Meters – 9:39.36   • DMR – 11:18.45 Outdoor Track & Field   • 800 Meters – 2:04.65   • 1500 Meters – 4:13.82   • 5000 Meters – 16:05.58 Cross Country   • 5K – 17:06   • 6K – 20:10 |
"Just the Ticket to Build Our Community" – The Bulldog Scholarship Fund gives Bulldog alumni, fans and friends the opportunity to support Fresno State Athletics and the student-athletes who inspire them. For information about how you can support the Bulldog Scholarship Fund, please visit www.bulldogschoarshipfund.com or call 559-278-7160.
Follow us on:
Twitter:Â @FS_TracknField
Instagram:Â fresnostate_tracknfield
Facebook:Â FresnoStateAthletics
Snap Chat:Â FSAthletics
Â
Players Mentioned
Distance
/ Track & FieldT&F: Cierra Jackson, 2025 discus national champion
Wednesday, June 18
The Game Changers: Coaches Corner - Gary Newell
Tuesday, February 13
The Game Changers: Coaches Corner - Gary Newell
Tuesday, February 13
T&F: Mountain West Outdoor Championships Day 4
Saturday, May 14