(upbeat rhythmic music)
- [Voiceover] And Sean Tobin of Mississippi, who is
in this race, has the best time in the conference
this year.
- [Voiceover] This is Ole Miss taking over the lead
with All-American Robert Domanic taking the lead
for Mississippi.
- [Voiceover] And there is Craig Engels, who looked
very smooth, very comfortable, ran very well
in his heats.
He spent two years plus at North Carolina State.
- I wouldn't really say we have like a designated
team leader.
Collectively, there's a bunch of people on the team
who step up when they need to.
- [Craig Engels] It's like an episode of, you know,
Jersey Shore.
Every person brings their own personality to it.
- [Robert] We all just try to be ourselves.
We don't try to change who we are.
We're just a goofy bunch of individuals, and we just
try to have the most fun we can while we're doing it,
because running's not always like the funnest thing
to do.
It's a lot of hard work and so...
Anything we can do just to, you know, kind of get our mind
off of it and just enjoy ourselves is nice.
Sean.
- [Sean Tobin] At home, it's kind of like you've got
your team, your friends, I was lucky to have a great
group of guys at home, as well that worked with me.
But here, you live with the guys, you know.
You're under the same roof.
You eat together, you do absolutely everything together,
and you know, that makes a team.
You're more than a team.
You're a family.
- I've never seen a team this together and this cohesive.
It really is just one giant puzzle, and if the piece
is missing, then you can tell.
- If you win, when you're not friends with someone,
who do you get to share it with, you know?
But this team, when we win, we share it with each other.
- [Voiceover] As the Rebels began their rise, producing
some of the best results in school history, assistant
coach Ryan Vanhoy remained the consistent voice and
active leader that resonates with his student athletes.
- [Craig] Coming in here, my relationship with Coach
Vanhoy was a little different.
He was my camp counselor, I guess you could say,
when I was in high school.
And back then, I was a little bit of a troublemaker.
I'm not saying I'm not now, but...
He thought of me as like a very immature guy, and I
looked up to him as like a camp counselor.
But now that I'm here at Ole Miss and he's my coach,
it's more like a father figure.
- [Coach Vanhoy] Ignore everything, all you're doing is
racing, all right?
Ignore what anyone says, what you hear, ignore it.
- [Sean] He's always been there, supportive, calm,
like Craig has said, he's a father figure to the group
and you know, we have our good times with him, our
bad times, but you know, he's there to support us
and he's doing a wonderful job with it.
- I'm a younger coach, so, you know, I still like
to joke around.
I'm sure one day I'll be old and maybe not as open to
some of the jokes, but you know, I think just having
a young feel to our program, to our group, you know,
knowing that we're here for serious business, but if
you get caught in the mundane details all the time,
you kind of lose the fun.
And then, if you're not having fun, it's going to be
hard to really be successful, at least at your
highest level.
- [Voiceover] The year before the arrival of Coach
Vanhoy to the most beautiful campus in America,
a foundation had already begun to take form behind
the leadership and determination of two men from
different parts of the world.
Following their opening indoor season, the Texas native
Robert Domanic and Sean Tobin of Ireland were both
named to the All-SEC First Team, while Tobin collected
the honor of SEC Co-Freshman Runner of the Year.
- You know, those two guys have certainly played a
special role in this program.
You know, they were kind of the first two really big
names to come to Ole Miss as distance athletes.
- [PA Voiceover] It's Ole Miss!
- [Voiceover] With the foundation of Tobin and
Domanic set in place, and the addition of Coach Vanhoy
to the staff complete, the next piece to be added
was Craig Engels, whose personality off the track
is just as entertaining as his All-American talents
on the track.
- Yeah, Craig has certainly brought a lot to our program.
Mostly good.
- [Voiceover] This is Craig Engels, who has really
blossomed this year as a sophomore.
He has run extraordinarily well.
He's run 1:46, getting his 800 meter time down to
personal best territory.
And he's got speed, they'll have to contend with him.
- [Vanhoy] He brings a light approach, and just a
light and sense of humor to our program, which has been
good to keep things fresh and there's always something
happening that might make me mad one minute, but I'm
laughing about it five minutes later.
- No, Gillie gets scared of the windows.
Like, he doesn't like heights.
And darkness.
So he sleeps, actually he sleeps in the bathroom.
- But certainly, having a history with Craig,
I kind of knew that up front.
So I knew what I was getting myself into.
- How now, brown cow?
- [Vanhoy] With that said, he's certainly matured
quite a bit in the year that he's been with us.
Obviously, his running has improved quite a bit.
But I think, on a personal level, he's also someone
that people on the team look up to.
He sets an example that people can follow, which may
not have been the case initially.
But he's put himself in a position now where you know,
he's certainly one of our leaders.
- [Voiceover] Adding another element to the distance
team was fifth-year transfer and three-time All-ACC
performer, Ryan Walling.
- [Ryan] I had Coach Vanhoy as a coach at UNC my
freshman year, and when it came time to look for
spots for a fifth year, it kind of was a no-brainer
to look here.
I'd had one of my best years of college under Vanhoy.
You know, he just broke it down and said "If we've had
success before, and if we want to have it again,
you know, trust me and we can do it."
And at the end of the day, he was right.
I mean, I put all my eggs in his basket and it was
exactly what I hoped it would be.
- [Vanhoy] You know, Walling has brought a lot of
maturity to the program.
You know, for him, this is his final year.
So, it's basically a make or break type of scenario
for him.
There is no next year.
There is no next season.
I think his mentality and his approach is to pour
everything he's got into this final year.
I think other people on the team can sense that and
see kind of how he carries himself on a day to day
basis, and it's really helped kind of elevate just
the professionalism of our group.
- I was down in Jacksonville last year, for Regionals
with Craig and Robert and Trevor and watching them
all make Nationals was...
it was incredible.
It made me reassured that I made the right decision.
You know, the success they've had here in their time
at Ole Miss is something that I really wanted to emulate.
- [PA Voiceover] Ole Miss, bring them home!
- [Voiceover] Competing in his first ever SEC
Championships, Walling would not only help the Rebels
sweep every men's distance event at the Randall Tyson
Track Center that weekend, he would become the first
Rebel to ever win two individual titles at an SEC
indoor meet.
- [Voiceover] With yesterday's victory in the 5K,
Ryan Walling of Ole Miss completes the sweep with
another victory in the 3K.
- [Vanhoy] You know honestly, a nice surprise,
I think even for him.
Coming in, we'd never won a conference title in anything.
- I mean it was honestly, it took a while to process it.
I never had a chance to win a conference title in any
level of running before, and to win two in the same
weekend, it was a dream come true.
You know, my teammates supported me the whole way,
and to have my parents there was honestly all I could
have asked for that weekend.
- [Vanhoy] For him to win the 3K the first night
and to really break open the race the way that he did,
it's what ensured a one-two-three finish for us.
To walk into the SEC and leave as the guy that scored
the most points individually in the whole meet, you know
that certainly says something about him.
- [Ryan] You kind of think about every great moment
you've had in running across your whole career, and
how they just pale in comparison to that moment.
Looking back after the 3K and seeing Sean West
right behind me, it was...
You don't get many moments like that in running, and
I just tried to take full advantage of it.
It was pretty special.
- [Voiceover] Are you ready?
- [Team] Heeeeeeeeeck yes!
Heighty! Tighty!
Gosh a mighty!
Who in the hell are we?
Rim! Ram! Flim! Flam!
Ole Miss by damn!
(cheering)
- [Voiceover] At the 2014 SEC Indoor Championships,
Domanic and Tobin, along with Will Spires and
Montez Griffin, would help capture the first DMR
Championship in school history.
But certainly not the last.
- [Vanhoy] Those were kind of the two bedrocks that
we built everything else around.
And so, to have those guys win the first championship,
definitely was cool to kind of think those are the
guys that really helped to turn around what we were doing.
- Just winning that as a team just was the first
bit of team success we got to taste.
- [Voiceover] The following year, at Kentucky,
the Rebels would send out an entirely different
group of runners, yet still walked out with the
same taste as SEC champions.
- [Craig] When I came here, I knew that we had won
last year.
And at SECs, I was looking around and all the fans
are ready for this event.
They're all in the infield and outfield and it's
like a tunnel you're running through.
When I got the baton, I was just like "I have to
keep the school history going so we could get
two in a row."
- [Vanhoy] Yeah, the DMR is something that we take
a lot of pride in here.
It kind of just happened by chance our first year,
all together, won the SEC.
And I think since then, it's just kind of been our
expectation every year is to end the meet with
a victory.
- [Voiceover] Entering with back-to-back titles,
the Rebs would complete the three-peat behind a strong
performance from a wide range of distance runners.
(crowd cheering)
- [Craig] Being in Arkansas,
it's kind of like historical.
They've won all these national championships, SEC
championships, through distance.
And to go into their building, and to shut them
out almost completely, I'm sure they scored like
five points in distance and we scored something
like 70.
- [Voiceover] And there are three or four people
I think who could win.
They've got the finishing kicks, they've got the
fast 800 meter times.
Who is going to be patient?
Who is going to make a move at the right time
is the big question here.
- When you show up in the building that you're
here to compete, you're not going to make it
easy for anybody else.
That they're really going to have to lay everything
they have out on the line to beat us.
- [Craig] The DMR is our event.
So, when we come into that building, people look to us.
And they're scared of us.
And that feels good, you know?
- [PA Voiceover] With one lap to go, it's Ole Miss
out front.
(cheering)
For the third straight year, the Rebels of Ole
Miss are the champions of the DMR.
- [Craig] Both the wins, this year and last year,
were like the pinnacles of my running career, you know?
- [Robert] The first year, we were just like, you
know what, we have a chance to win it, you hope
we're going to win.
But this year, it's like, there's not a chance
we're not going to win it.
- [Craig] Three DMRs in a row is a pretty high
standard to set for the SEC.
Conventionally, the SEC is not like a distance
power squad, but we are changing the face of
the game, you know?
(thundering music)
- [Robert] Indoor this year was the first time we
actually showed with Walling getting seventh in
the 5K, and that's good aim.
The DMR team getting third was finally us
establishing ourselves.
- [Vanhoy] That's something that we've been
hoping to be relevant on the
national level as well.
So I think finally making it to the NCAAs in
that event, finishing third.
(empowering music)
- Great race, man!
Great passion.
- [Sean] Got to keep doing what we're doing, you know?
It's working.
Just, got to keep pushing hard,
doing the small things right.
- [Robert] It's not an individual team, you know
it really is everyone works on each other's goals
and everyone makes sure that everyone is there
for each other.
- [Craig] We are definitely there.
We are ready to take the next step, and all
the talent is there, the fitness is there.
This outdoor season, we're going to prove that
to everyone, and I think the NCAA is going to
be very impressed with Ole Miss this year.
- [Voiceover] As the Ole Miss track and field
program heads into their bright future, the
attitude and effort of the men's distance program
is looking to pave the way to a lasting legacy.