Athlete: Thomas Pollard
Year: Senior
School: Gilbert High School
Location: Gilbert, Iowa
Mile PR: 4:08.28
3200m PR: 8:50.43
Cross Country: 15:04 5K PR; two-time Footlocker All-American

Key Workout:

  • 2 mile warmup with strides
  • 8 x 400m (65-66 seconds) with 60 second recovery between repeats
  • 1 mile cooldown at easy pace

Thomas Pollard grew up fully immersed in Iowa State University sports, which is hardly surprising given his father, Jamie, is completing his 10th year as ISU Director of Athletics. And while the younger Pollard says he’s focused on completing his career at Gilbert High School and running in several elite meets around the country, Cyclone fans are counting the days until he matriculates at ISU and first competes as a Cyclone. A 4.0 student who is exceedingly easy going, Pollard is a relentless competitor when he changes into his spikes. Part of that derives from all the years of watching Big 12 sports from the near sidelines.

Pollard defended his crown in the 3A 3200m race at the Iowa State championships on Thursday in a time of 9:07.41. (Second place finished in 9:35.) He is expected to be at the front of the pack in the 1600m on Saturday, too. His sisters Annie (a junior) and Maggie (a freshman) will be competing at the state meet, too, running the 3000m and 800m, respectively. 

Gym Rat: Growing up Madison, Wisconsin, before moving to Iowa in 2005, Pollard, 18, pursued just about every sport he could throughout his younger years and middle school, with basketball being his first love. “I even tried a year of football,” he says, “but when I realized I didn’t like getting hit or hitting people, I knew that probably wasn’t a sport I should play.” Pollard went out for cross country in seventh grade, but kept playing basketball through his sophomore year. Last year was the first year he focused solely on running.

Family Style: The oldest of four children, Pollard is presently the most prolific athlete in a family of runners. Three decades ago his father was a standout distance runner at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. Jamie Pollard was the first Titans’ cross country All-American and won the 1987 DIII national 5,000m title in 14:31.20, a school record that held up for 10 years. Pollard’s sisters, Annie and Maggie, are varsity cross country and track runners at Gilbert High School and his brother, James, plans to begin middle school cross country in the fall. His mother, Ellen, is a runner as well, though she is happy letting her children do the racing.

Brotherly Love: No one is happier that Pollard decided on Iowa State than his brother, James, who was born in 2003 with a rare form of cancer and has struggled through four bouts of the disease. Though likely to always face health challenges, James has been cancer-free for more than two years and ran his first 5K race in March, an achievement celebrated by his family as well as hundreds of friends. Big brother Thomas was especially proud that day. “James and I are really close,” Pollard says. “And what he’s been through has made me a lot more grateful and I realize how lucky I am.”

Gilbert’s Greatest: Pollard was the top runner on the Gilbert High School cross country each of the four years he was on the team. He finished 11th in the Class 2A state meet as a freshman in 2011 and runner-up the next two seasons. His Gilbert team finished second, third and second those years. A move up to Class 3A for the 2014–15 academic year meant competing against larger schools, yet it didn’t alter Pollard’s dedication to coming out on top. Pollard ran his 15:04 5K personal best to win the state title by over a minute, leading his team to the elusive championship. “We had a great senior class when I was a freshman, just wonderful role models to look up to,” Pollard says. “They laid the foundation for what we finally achieved last fall, so we have to attribute part of the title to them.”

Meb’s Message: While attending the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials, Pollard had the opportunity to meet and talk briefly with top U.S. marathoner Meb Keflezighi. Pollard picked up on a key insight that continues to resonate with him today. “The one piece of advice [Meb] gave me was to do push-ups and sit-ups every single day,” Pollard says. “And at first I was a little surprised, because I wasn’t thinking something that small would be so important to a high caliber athlete like him. But it really made me realize that it’s the little things that matter, and if you want to be successful you’ve got to do each and every little thing as good as you can.”

Blue Oval: Each April, the finest Iowa high school track and field athletes are invited to compete at the venerable Drake Relays, hosted the last weekend of April by Drake University in Des Moines. Often compared to the Penn Relays, Drake is a bit younger (first held in 1910; Penn dates back to 1895) and doesn’t have a stadium nearly as large as Penn’s Franklin Field. But the standard of the competition is great at both and Drake has its signature blue track. Pollard has won a pair of Drake Relays 3200m titles. “I’ve had some ups and downs there,” he says, “but I still love Drake and love the Relays. For me it’s always been an opportunity to race against guys from bigger schools in Iowa. Other than at Drake I never get to see them during the year. Getting to run on the blue oval in front of all the fans is an amazing experience that I’ll never forget, and I'm looking forward to running there in college, too.”

Footlocker Two-Timer: Pollard brought home All-America honors from both his trips to Foot Locker Nationals, placing 13th as a junior in 2013 and 12th last fall. The first of those races was a motivational experience. “That was the first time I’d been to a national race on that level, and running well there made me realize I could do something in running,” Pollard says. Last fall Pollard led the Foot Locker final for about 2K before relinquishing the lead and fading to 12th. “I felt my best chance would be to go for it from the start and make it fast,” he says. “I knew I wasn’t going to run away with it, but I thought maybe I could get away from a few of the guys who could probably outkick me had it been a slow race. Things didn’t really go as planned and I was pretty disappointed, but at the same time I had to be happy getting another All-American finish.”

Front Running: It may not yet be his only style of racing, but leading from the gun is something Pollard has done often in high school. “But I’ve always felt, and especially in longer races, that I have to rely more on my strength than pure speed,” he says. “So I guess I always want the race to be fast and not let it come down to a kick.” In approaching the Drake Relays 3200m on April 23, Pollard knew he would face a big kicker in the form of Dowling Catholic’s Ryan Schweizer. So the Gilbert senior pushed the pace to zip through 1600m in 4:25, the same split he recorded during his 8:50.43 all-time Iowa best at last year’s state meet. With a big lead and his opponents struggling to avoid falling farther behind, Pollard could afford to ease up slightly. He crossed the line in 9:07.50, taking a comfortable eight-second win.

Cyclones Rising: Pollard’s college decision came down to Stanford and Iowa State, and he had a hard time choosing. But ISU won out. He’ll start there in the fall and expects to study math or a business-related field. “It was a tough process, and I just didn’t know,” he says. “My mom kept telling me to pray about it and go with what felt right, and after a while I finally knew it was Iowa State. The program is definitely on the rise and I’m really excited to be able to contribute and help build something special here. I’ll be trying to improve on each and every aspect of my running and I’ve got a lot of work to do, but I’m looking forward to seeing what happens.”