Deacon Sports Xtra: Frenetic Spring Benefits Facioni in Record Setting Season

Deacon Sports Xtra: Frenetic Spring Benefits Facioni in Record Setting Season

6/14/2021 12:35:00 PM | Track and Field, Les Johns

Facioni closed out his tremendous season with a 23rd place finish at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.

By: Les Johns

It's been a frenetic spring season for both Wake Forest cross country and track and field, with weekends often filled with as many as three different events in three different parts of the country.

But the blending of the schedules had a side benefit for some performers, including Zach Facioni, who just earned a silver medal while hitting a personal best and program record in the 5000m at the ACC Outdoor Track & Field Championships at the Paul Derr Track Facility in Raleigh in mid-May.

"It's been really good," Facioni said about the blending of schedules that was a departure from the norm because of Covid-19. "It was a little weird having cross country at the start of this season. I think for the most part it was beneficial going into outdoors. It gives you a wide training block and you can build up a few more miles, than you otherwise would if you were racing indoors."

"It's been a massive factor as to why myself and many of the other members of our team have run so well during the outdoor season. We had that extended training period, and it's really helped so many of the guys."

Facioni, a junior, finished the 5000m in 13:30.84, which was good for second place in the ACC Championships. The performance sent him to the East Preliminary Round, which serves as the opening rounds to the NCAA Outdoor Championships to be held June 9-12 in Eugene, Ore.

"It was awesome," Facioni said. "We had a feeling before the meet that it was going to be fast. We kind of knew what the Florida State runner was going to do in the race, and he ended up doing that. It was tough, because I had a rough start to the race. I got pushed back to the second half of the field.

"I had a lot of tough laps trying to catch up, so that cost me in the end. But it was awesome. It was great to get another PB in the books."

Originally planning to compete in multiple events, Facioni and the Wake Forest coaching staff instead decided to hone in specifically on the 5000m.

"Having one less event to do in the ACC Championship makes recovery that much easier and makes the transition that much easier," Facioni said.

"Based on some of the competition at nationals, it's likely to be a fast race. If I want to do well, I'm going to have to run fast. We'll see how it goes."

At the East Preliminary Round, Facioni punched his ticket to the NCAA Outdoor Championships with a 7th place finish and a mark of 13:45.54. In Eugene, he raced to a 13:58.26 time that placed him 23rd in the 5000-meter final. The effort capped off Facioni's tremendous season for the Demon Deacons.

After nationals, Facioni will take a quick break before jumping right back into training.

"I'll have a little bit of a break after the outdoor nationals, then start the rebuilding process focusing on the fall cross country season," he said. A bunch of the guys on the team are heading to Flagstaff, Arizona for six weeks.

"We'll get some really good training there and come back really fit for cross country season."

The workouts in Arizona will be at 7,000 altitude, according to Facioni.

"There's a lot of complicated science that goes into it," he said. "It basically increases the amount of red-blood cells your body reproduces. Then when you get back down to sea level, you're able to train harder and recover faster."

Because of the free year of eligibility allowed by the NCAA, we're going to see Facioni in the Old Gold & Black for a couple more years.

"I have two more years of eligibility remaining for everything after we're done with nationals, so I plan on staying for two more years," he said. "I've still yet to make an indoor or outdoor NCAA championship, so that's still a major goal, doing as well as possible and picking us some All-American awards along the way would be the top goals."

Even without Facioni in the fall, the Wake Forest cross country team was able to place third in the ACC Championships.

"We have some great guys on the team, and it was great to see them step up," Facioni said. "Everyone knew how important it was. We feel like we'd underperformed the last couple of years, and the team was really hungry to show what we're capable of. We made it to the national championships and had our best finish in many, many years."

"We're looking to do some real damage next year and the year after. We'll have pretty much everyone back and we're adding a few grad transfer guys who will be strong. We have a great opportunity to do some great things."