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For every Marcus Williams and Jimmy Howard on campus, there is another University of Maine athlete that resides quietly behind the spotlight, only to appear briefly in moments of high glory. For fifth-year senior Michael Lansing, his collegiate career has too often been defined by those short moments of glory. Lansing, the backbone of distance running at UMaine, is the type of athlete that has eluded that persistent spotlight he so fittingly deserves.
With his final season quickly fading, Lansing has emerged like never before. In one of the finest cross country seasons in school history, Lansing has posted impressive tallies in three of the Black Bears biggest races and led the men’s cross country squad into the history books.
The largest came two weeks ago when Lansing led a Black Bear assault on the conference history books in the America East league meet. In unprecedented fashion, the Black Bears steamrolled a highly-touted University of New Hampshire squad for the first cross country title in school history.
Lansing paved the way for the Black Bears in the championship with a spectacular second-place finish overall, coming at 24:31.40. Lansing believes the team championship was the pinnacle of the season.
“We have had this goal of beating UNH for years and finally it happened,” said Lansing. “It’s just a awesome feeling.”
However, it is the race that came before the conference meet, the New England championship, that Lansing thought played a critical role in the season.
“I felt New Englands was the most important meet prior to the conference meet,” said Lansing. “Once we realized we could beat UNH, we knew we had the upper hand.”
In the New England Championships, Lansing once again led the way with an impressive time of 25:00.0 over the 4.95 mile course. The time merited a 10th place individual performance and helped the Black Bears to a surprising third place finish overall.
Rounding out the trio of the big races came in the 13th annual Murray Keatinge Invitational when Lansing crossed the finish line in 10th place serving as the catalyst for a 4th place finish in the meet.
The sparkling season for Lansing is the capper on a excellent collegiate career. It was a season that the runner had long anticipated.
“I knew our last year was going to be huge,” said Lansing. “We came in as one of the best recruiting class in school history.”
Although the championship victory would be a beautiful way to end the story, the Black Bears and Lansing still have the tradition-rich NCAA regional ahead. A meet which Lansing has a defined strategy for.
“I want to get top ten, so I would rather go out hard and burn out then run out of room,” said Lansing.
This is a strategy that Lansing has used throughout his collegiate career.
“I’d rather go out hard and be in position and hang on,” said Lansing.
If Lansing is able to achieve his predicted goal it would be a dream chance of running at the National Championships, a berth that is never out of reach for a runner of Lansing’s caliber.
Whatever lies ahead in the approaching races, it is clear the exuberant Maine native will forever have left his mark the program. Having emerged early on his freshman season, Lansing has continually led the Black Bears in every one of his season’s since. Marked as the steady No.1 man on the team, Lansing is eager to experience other avenues of interest after.
“I think I might get into triathlons,” said Lansing. “I want to get into other stuff and explore.”
So, while Lansing quietly continues his march into the UMaine Athletic folklore, let’s hope more than few talk time to appreciate what he has achieved because careers like his are few and far between.
