Sophomore Pat Dupont has played a key role on the No. 11 men's cross country team this season, leading his squad to its first ever BIG EAST and NCAA Northeast Region titles. The Fairport, N.Y. native clocked SU's best time of 24:51 at the BIG EAST Championship to place fourth overall. Most recently, Dupont was the first Orange runner to cross the finish line at the NCAA Northeast Regional, placing fifth with a time of 31:09. Despite being only a sophomore, Dupont has also represented Syracuse on the international level. He placed fifth at the 2009 USA Cross Country Championship, earning him an automatic bid to the 2009 IAAF World Cross Country Championship in Amman, Jordan. In Jordan, Dupont finished in front of 69 other competitors to take 48th place with a time of 25:52. His finish helped the American contingent, made up of Dupont and fellow Syracuse teammate, Tito Medrano, place fifth out of 18 countries. He is majoring in music composition at Syracuse and competes in the steeplechase for the school's track and field team. 

On why he chose SU:
“It was the best combination of a sports program and coaching and team that I really liked. Then, there was the academic side as well.”

On his pre-meet routines:
“Starting two or three days before, our training is always the same leading into the race, like the warm up and everything is always the same routine. Outside of running, I don't have any weird traditions.”

On eating any special foods before running:
“When we're away, we usually go out to dinner so we normally try to find an Italian restaurant or something like that.”

On his goals for the rest of the season:
“All year it's been about the team and trying to make nationals. We've had such a successful year and we've really set ourselves up pretty well.”

On the best reason for SU fans to support cross country:
“We won the BIG EAST. Not a lot of teams around here have been doing that this year so far. Five years ago this program was awful and now we're BIG EAST Champions so it's kind of exciting

On playing other sports growing up:
“I played basketball and soccer in recreational leagues.”

On why he stuck with cross country instead of another sport:
“My brother started doing it when he was in high school and so I started doing it when I was in high school. It was just something I really enjoyed doing so I stuck with it.”

On the best piece of advice he's gotten from Coach Fox during his time here:
“Practice patience all the time.”

On his favorite Coach Fox memory:
“This year, after Wisconsin and after BIG EAST, just seeing how really excited he was during the race and after the race, after we had some really big wins.”