‘Front-runner’ stays confident in abilities

By Paul Trembacki
Sports Editor

For a freshman cross country runner, she definitely has the right attitude.

Lindsay Zinn is confident.

"I'm a front-runner," she said. "I feel like I have to be in front or I'm not doing good."

If her first race was any indication of what's to come for Zinn, she will be doing good things all season for the Purdue women's cross country team.

At Saturday's Purdue Open, Zinn took an early lead and steadily built on it, finishing the 5,000-meter race in 17:39.80 — 41.90 seconds ahead of her nearest competitor.

Zinn said her competitive instincts took over as soon as the starting gun was fired, and she simply sought to dominate the race.

"Since high school I've always had that attitude of wanting to win," Zinn said.

As a senior at Lakota East High School, the West Chester, Ohio, native, won state in cross country in the fall and captured first place in the 1,600-meter run and second in the 3,200 in track in the spring. In her junior year, she placed fifth at the state cross country meet and sixth in the 1,600 in track.

Those performances were what made Ohio State, Tennessee and Purdue, among others, offer her scholarships.

She wanted to run in the Big Ten Conference, which ruled out Tennessee as a choice. Then, faced with the choice between being a Buckeye or a Boilermaker, she chose to come to West Lafayette because her dad was a graduate student in the Schools of Engineering at Purdue.

Ben Paolillo, who stepped down as head coach of the women's track and cross country programs this summer, recruited Zinn and told her she would be able to achieve a lot at Purdue.

Mike Poehlein, now coach of the entire Purdue cross country program, said Zinn ought to be a significant contributor this season.

"She showed potential (Saturday), and we're going to explore her potential a week at a time," Poehlein said. "But when I say she's got a front-runner mentality, that's an ultimate compliment."

Poehlein is slightly worried that Zinn's confidence might suffer as the competition gets tougher and she can't always be the front-runner.

Well aware of this potential self-esteem inhibitor, Zinn is ready to drop her highly competitive attitude when appropriate, and she hasn't set any unrealistic personal goals.

"I just hope I can help the team make it to nationals — that's our goal," Zinn said.

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