By Frank Rajkowski, SJU Writer/Video Producer

COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. - To train for his final season of collegiate cross country, Saint John's University senior Trey Collins ran almost 1,200 miles this past summer.

That's an average of about 100 miles per week, which is just 17 less than the distance between Collegeville and Carleton College in Northfield – the site of this Saturday's MIAC cross country championship meet.

"I was actually running twice a day," he said with a smile. "I worked nights so I'd wake up about 10 in the morning. I'd get my first run in. Then I'd eat lunch – or really breakfast for me. I'd wait an hour, then I'd get another run in before I went to work."

"I actually got into a pretty good routine. I'm kind of a creature of habit."

That routine yielded a number that impressed his head coach.

"It's very rare to have someone put in that many miles in the offseason," Johnnies coach Tim Miles said. "Not everybody could do that. Not everybody would want to. And even many who would want to might not be physically capable of it.

"He has that physical capability. And he knew what he wanted to do."

The work was all completed with an eye toward making his senior season as successful as possible. Collins, a 2015 Royalton High School graduate, ran cross country and track and field at St. Cloud State University as a freshman before those programs were dropped.

He then transferred to SJU and made an immediate impact, placing ninth in the MIAC cross country meet in 2016 and 24th the following year. Collins earned All-MIAC honors (top three) with third-place finishes in the 5,000- and 10,000-meter runs at the 2018 MIAC outdoor track & field championships.

But, in an effort to match his final season of eligibility with his final year on campus, Collins did not compete last fall – instead training on his own, even as he battled a case of uveitis in his left eye, a condition that causes inflammation and can lead to vision loss if not treated properly.

"It's been kind of a roller coaster during my time here – for that and other reasons that have come and gone," he said.

"But I think the adversity I've gone through has made me tougher. At the end of the day, no matter what's happening, you still have to push through it and get things done. Happiness rests in your own hands."

Overcoming adversity
By far the biggest blow Collins has had to absorb was the death of his father, who suffered a heart attack at age 52 in 2016 – just as his son was also dealing with a change in schools.

"He was the guy who got me into running," Collins recalls. "I hated it as a kid. I was kind of a fat little chunker. I loved eating pizza and playing video games. 

"Then I was outside with my Dad one day playing Frisbee and he was blunt. He told me that I needed to start exercising more and maybe join a sport.

"I thought about football," he added with a chuckle. "But he said 'You'll get killed!' So I ended up going out for cross country."

Collins said the death of his father left him adrift and largely alone, with his mother not really in the picture. But he credits cross country at SJU, especially his teammates, with helping him break free of what became a dark cycle.

"When I first got here, I had big hair and a full beard," he remembers. "I really looked like a vagabond. I was involved with drugs and drinking – just doing a lot of things I shouldn't have been.

"This team pulled me out of that. We had an older runner named Ryan Bugler (a 2017 graduate who won the Division III national title in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the 2016 NCAA Division III outdoor track and field meet). He didn't need to give me the time of day. But he did. And that made a really huge impact on me."

Discipline, focus
So did joining the ROTC program, a decision he made to help afford putting himself through school.

"It's kind of funny because my old man was always trying to get me to join the Army growing up," he said. "And I did not want to do it.

"But I came to Saint John's and I needed to find a way to afford it. I talked to another guy on the cross country team about it and he connected me with the right people. It's really been a great decision. It's helped me become a lot more disciplined. And what it's really helped me with is my time management skills. It's made me a more organized person."

LTC Steven Beard, a professor of military science and the head of the Fighting Saints ROTC program, which includes cadets from Saint John's, the College of Saint Benedict and St. Cloud State, said Collins has been a major asset to the program.

"He's definitely a leader," said Beard, who has served in a variety of engineer units and has participated in four combat deployments – two each in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"We do a lot of competitive running ourselves, and cadets in ROTC also have to meet certain physical standards, including a two-mile run. Some of our freshmen cadets come in with no experience running at all. He wrote up a training guide for them. Not only that, but he comes in on his days off to train with them as well.

"You can tell that Cadet Collins is the kind of individual who has had to work for everything he's gotten," he continued. "And he's one of those people who is going to be successful at anything he decides to go on to do."

First up for the nutrition major after graduation will be an assignment at Fort Knox in Kentucky. Before that, though, comes this weekend's MIAC meet.

And Collins has his sights set high.

"My goal is to get into the top three," said Collins, whose team is scheduled to compete when the men's race gets underway at 11 a.m. Saturday. "It's a tough field. But the top 10 is certainly a realistic possibility.

"That's what I'm aiming for."