Wake Forest Athletics
Deacon Sports Xtra: Five Questions with Luke Tewalt
5/10/2022 12:30:00 PM | Track and Field
Sophomore Wake Forest track and field star Luke Tewalt is gearing up for the ACC Championships after already running a sub-four minute mile and achieving the U20 record in the 3000m earlier this season.
Tewalt recently spent some time with Deacon Sports Xtra for this Five Questions feature.
What are you studying at Wake Forest?
Tewalt: "I'm really, really enjoying my classes. I declared my major a few weeks ago — so officially a politics and international affairs major with a Middle East and South Asian studies minor. I really enjoy my classes because I'm really just learning so much more about the world. There's just so much history, so many connections that I knew a little bit about, but now that I'm getting a college level education, I really see how connected everything is in this world and I'm just getting super excited about a career outside of running.
"I hope to first go to grad school or maybe law school. Right now, tentatively, I really think I want to join the foreign service and potentially be a diplomat — join the Department of State, something international where I can represent my country on the international stage. Not only in athletics, but in helping the way the world runs, the world works. and making sure the U.S. gets good representation about what we're about and what we do and just helping other people out and other countries out."
What exactly is Buck's Fishing and Camping?
Tewalt: "That's where I work when I'm home. I work there in the summers and I work on my breaks. It's a great restaurant in DC where I'm from. It's a few blocks from my house and they serve, I don't know, the typical American cuisine. It's like a nice place. You get some steaks, you got some halibut. I don't know, the quinoa pilaf there is really good. It's a great family restaurant in the area."
Had you run a sub-four minute mile in practice prior to doing it in competition?
Tewalt: "No, I hadn't. So we almost never run full reps. Well, go full effort in the reps in practice and training. Well, especially because yeah, just distance running. You really don't really hit your full max speed or effort, and maybe sprinters do, but I can say for distance runners, we don't at all in our training. We run pretty fast sometimes, we'll have a time trial, but there's nothing like a race to really bring out the best in you that training might not."
How do you realize in training what you're capable of accomplishing?
Tewalt: "So, what's been so important in my development as a runner, is getting a base. So we call it a base, like you get really strong aerobically. So we just do a lot of miles. So in cross country I was doing a whole lot of mileage and then I cut it down a little bit for track. The workouts we've been doing, they're shorter reps. We started doing intervals, which we didn't do in cross country. About a week out I did almost like a breakdown. So, the mile distance is 1,609 meters, and then I'll do like 400 meter reps, 500 meter reps, 300 meter reps at the pace that I'll be trying to hit in the race. So, we break it down, but we just never just go the full distance. So about a week out, I was doing 500 meter reps at the pace that I wanted to be hitting. And as well as doing 300s and 200 meter reps as well."
How did you determine that track and field would be your sport of interest?
Tewalt: "I played soccer pretty much most of my life and I played lacrosse. I really wanted to play college lacrosse when I was growing up. But then in eighth grade I went out for the cross country team. It was fun and I started winning things. Oh, I don't have to get hit by a stick all the time. So this is great! I did cross country, and then I was still playing soccer and lacrosse. But then in high school, I won my first cross country meet and I was like, 'Oh, I think I should stick to cross country and running in general.'"
Tewalt recently spent some time with Deacon Sports Xtra for this Five Questions feature.
What are you studying at Wake Forest?
Tewalt: "I'm really, really enjoying my classes. I declared my major a few weeks ago — so officially a politics and international affairs major with a Middle East and South Asian studies minor. I really enjoy my classes because I'm really just learning so much more about the world. There's just so much history, so many connections that I knew a little bit about, but now that I'm getting a college level education, I really see how connected everything is in this world and I'm just getting super excited about a career outside of running.
"I hope to first go to grad school or maybe law school. Right now, tentatively, I really think I want to join the foreign service and potentially be a diplomat — join the Department of State, something international where I can represent my country on the international stage. Not only in athletics, but in helping the way the world runs, the world works. and making sure the U.S. gets good representation about what we're about and what we do and just helping other people out and other countries out."
What exactly is Buck's Fishing and Camping?
Tewalt: "That's where I work when I'm home. I work there in the summers and I work on my breaks. It's a great restaurant in DC where I'm from. It's a few blocks from my house and they serve, I don't know, the typical American cuisine. It's like a nice place. You get some steaks, you got some halibut. I don't know, the quinoa pilaf there is really good. It's a great family restaurant in the area."
Had you run a sub-four minute mile in practice prior to doing it in competition?
Tewalt: "No, I hadn't. So we almost never run full reps. Well, go full effort in the reps in practice and training. Well, especially because yeah, just distance running. You really don't really hit your full max speed or effort, and maybe sprinters do, but I can say for distance runners, we don't at all in our training. We run pretty fast sometimes, we'll have a time trial, but there's nothing like a race to really bring out the best in you that training might not."
How do you realize in training what you're capable of accomplishing?
Tewalt: "So, what's been so important in my development as a runner, is getting a base. So we call it a base, like you get really strong aerobically. So we just do a lot of miles. So in cross country I was doing a whole lot of mileage and then I cut it down a little bit for track. The workouts we've been doing, they're shorter reps. We started doing intervals, which we didn't do in cross country. About a week out I did almost like a breakdown. So, the mile distance is 1,609 meters, and then I'll do like 400 meter reps, 500 meter reps, 300 meter reps at the pace that I'll be trying to hit in the race. So, we break it down, but we just never just go the full distance. So about a week out, I was doing 500 meter reps at the pace that I wanted to be hitting. And as well as doing 300s and 200 meter reps as well."
How did you determine that track and field would be your sport of interest?
Tewalt: "I played soccer pretty much most of my life and I played lacrosse. I really wanted to play college lacrosse when I was growing up. But then in eighth grade I went out for the cross country team. It was fun and I started winning things. Oh, I don't have to get hit by a stick all the time. So this is great! I did cross country, and then I was still playing soccer and lacrosse. But then in high school, I won my first cross country meet and I was like, 'Oh, I think I should stick to cross country and running in general.'"
Players Mentioned
Distance
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