JONES TURNS OUT TO BE A DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH FOR VCU
By Chris Kowalczyk
10-13-09

Ariana Jones’ first foray into cross country wasn’t exactly love at first sight. Actually, it wasn’t even like at first sight. Instead, it played out like a bad blind date.

Perhaps that’s what has made Jones’ ascension to the front of Virginia Commonwealth University’s pack so stunning. A freshman from Sterling, Va., Jones has been the Rams’ top harrier in two of the school’s three meets, despite a grand total of three weeks of high school cross country experience.

Her early returns have VCU believing it may have found a diamond in the rough – a rare, untapped talent.

As a freshman at Potomac Hills High School, Jones joined the cross country program after she failed to make the volleyball team. Although she played basketball, the fitness level required for distance running proved to be a completely different animal.

The intense mileage was a heavy burden for Jones. Three weeks into training, she fell down a hill and into a hole during a run, an ordeal that left Jones with a hyperextended knee. That was the end Jones’ high school cross country career.

“I wasn’t cut out for it,” Jones said.  “After I fell in the hole, I was like, ‘guys, this isn’t working out for me.’”

Jones walked away from cross country, but not from running. She went on to become a star 800-meter runner for Potomac Hills, where Jones won a regional title and placed fourth at the AA State Meet as a senior.

With a personal-best 800 mark of 2:18, Jones had the credentials to run track at the Division I level. She identified VCU as one of her targets, but Rams’ Distance Coach Ethan Tussing wasn’t convinced his program had room for a one-dimensional middle distance runner like Jones.

“She missed out on a lot. In high school, she wasn’t doing cross country training, she wasn’t doing indoor track training, she was just doing outdoor,” Tussing said. “Initially, I wasn’t interested in her because of that.”

Jones knew she’d have to expand her horizons if she wanted to be successful in college. She’d resisted overtures to get her back on the cross country course for three years, but maybe now it was time to start listening.

Late in the track season last spring, Jones talked her way into the 1,600-meter run at a JV meet, where she clocked a district-qualifying 5:33. She ran the 1,600 again at the Dulles District meet, where she took third place in 5:25.44. Impressed with her talent and determination, Tussing decided to give Jones another look.

Following AAU track season, which ran midway through this past summer, Jones began training with the Potomac Hills Cross Country team…again. But this time, it was different. The training was still difficult, but armed with a new sense of purpose and a few years of seasoning, Jones caught on quickly.

“When I talked to her over the summer, she was already leaps and bounds ahead of where I thought she’d be,” Tussing said. “I thought she’d be running 20 minutes a day or something. Instead, she was running like, 60 minutes a day, doing 75-minute runs. She impressed me again.”

On Sept. 4 at the Rams’ first meet of the year, the Virginia Tech Relays, Jones teamed with sophomore Heather DelaCruz to form VCU’s top pair. The duo finished 11th, and Jones’ two 2.5-kilometer splits totaled a team-best 19:37.40. Two weeks later, at the Winthrop Fall Classic, Jones was the Rams’ top runner again, covering the five-kilometer layout in 19:31.65 to place 23rd in the 115-runner field.

Jones admits the transition hasn’t been easy. Prior to this fall, she’d never logged more than 20 miles in a week of training. Tussing’s VCU squad regularly reaches 50 miles per week this time of year. In addition, Jones had never weight trained before she enrolled a VCU. However, she says willing to put in the miles if it translates to faster legs.

“I knew that when I got here I’d have to run cross country to become a beast 800 runner, so I just sucked it up and tried,” Jones said. “Something about running that fast for that long doesn’t sit well with my body…It’s just another level. But I really feel like I need any extra edge, as far as training is concerned.”

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