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Walter There's this team up north, Gilmour Academy, and they are stacked this year. They have just about everything: sprints, distance and throws. I wouldn't be surprised if they score over 50 at state. Usually, if you score 50 you're winning by a lot. We're not as deep as we were last year. Our 4-by-8 will have to come together and place pretty high.

Marc Last year we had a little more depth to the team. We knew what we had in the 800. This year we're not quite as deep. We rely mostly on John and Walt. We have a couple other athletes that will contribute in the district and regional, hopefully. ... Last year, I honestly believed going into it that we had the best chance of winning it. This year I think we're going to have to catch some breaks. But hopefully, things will work out at the end. I told they guys, let's not put pressure on ourselves. Let's just do the best we can. I think they've accomplished a lot already. There's no sense going into this thing that if we don't win the whole thing then it hasn't been successful.

Q There's a lot of speculation about the twins tripling in the same events. Have you decided what you'll do?

John I'm pretty confident we can go 1-2 in the 1,600. The 800, that's the one that's going to be tough. That's a little short for me and Walter. We're more longer guys so that's going to get a top five in that because it's really going to be packed. If we get through the 1,600 and 800 all right, then the 3,200 is what we feel comfortable in. I'm not really worried about that. We just have to get through, really, the 800. That's what worries us. ... We can't really get all the great times other runners do, because we really have to pack on the miles. So we're really tired for a lot of our races. We're really aiming for the last meet of the season. We can't be slacking off for the mile in the middle of the season just to get a good time. That's really sort of been a downer, but hopefully it'll all pay off.

Walter A big factor will be how me and John run in the 4-by-8. We really haven't had that good of 800 times this year. We'll probably make a decision the week after district. ... Probably not. The 800 and 3,200 are only about 20 minutes apart, and the 800 is pretty deep this year. ... I feel pretty confident in the 3,200. If we can go 1-2 in the mile — just win and not shoot for a specific time — and then get mentally ready for that 800.

Marc I have something in my mind, but I don't want to go on record, yet. I don't anticipate that they will triple all the way to the state, no. Look at history. Has anybody really pulled that off? I don't know. I don't think in recent years it has.

Q Is there extra pressure when you're running against your brother? Or at state, could it be different, knowing you're both building points for a possible team title?

John If I see Walter starting to pull away a little and I'm not feeling it, I'll just let him go. If it was someone else, I'd be more motivated to catch him. But if we're running at state and he was pulling away a little and I knew someone was behind me, then I'd probably just tag along with (Walter) and try to lose him (the trailer).

Walter We're definitely going to double at state, no matter what. There's probably more pressure knowing that after you've already won the mile and you're better than everyone in the 3,200 field, that you're afraid that some might sneak up on you. That's really the only pressure I feel: Getting beat by someone that's not as good as you.

Marc I think that they help each other. They have a very healthy competition. I think they push each other. A lot of times, if Walter's running the 3,200, John, he's running by himself. And the same thing a lot of times with John in the 1,600. I think it helps with Walter there, pushing him along.

Q Last year you might have snuck up on everyone else throughout the state. Especially with Sam Borchers of Yellow Springs dominating your races. You won't sneak up on anyone this year. Is that good or bad?

John You'd always rather be the hunter than the hunted. You go into a lot of races knowing you're the best runner, but at state anything can happen. There's a lot of pressure, especially if we try and triple and repeat as state champions.

Walter A little bit of both. Bad because you have a target on your back as the defending state champs. Everyone wants to get you. But, at the same time, good because you know you have their respect.

Q You're two parts of a deep and outstanding run of area distance runners, especially the last 10 years. Could you reflect on what that means to you?

John We've had two national high school miles champions in Jeff See (Middletown) and Sam Borchers. And Danny Neff (Vandalia Butler) ran 1:53 (in the 800) as a sophomore last year. I don't know, there's something about the Dayton area that it's pretty loaded year in and year out. ... There's been a lot of talent. Ohio's a decent distance running state. I think Dayton is really the top area for distance running. Middle distance at least. You see one guy get up there and it seems like everyone else shoots for him.

Walter We've had two national champion miles in Dayton alone. And Danny Neff's really coming along. Maybe three next year if he focuses on the mile. There's always good competition in Dayton, especially in the 800, 3,200 and mile. We've been pretty fortunate to come along in this time period. We've had good competition pretty much all year 'round. ... It's good to let everyone know that even though you're D-III, you can still compete. At Fairmont, we might have been the only D-III school there. It's good to get D-III a little respect around the state. It's hard to get.

Marc They're definitely among the more elite distance runners around here the last 10 years. I know a lot of people didn't feel like it was possible to do what we did last year with just distance runners. But these guys are of such a high quality that it happened.

Q Has it been neat running with your brother?

John Yeah. I usually win the mid-season races, but he usually wins the last one. I don't mind, though. As long as we both go 1-2.

Walter It's definitely easier when you have a twin. A lot of elite runners just practice by themselves. And it's hard to get out there and do it by yourself. It's a lot easier when you've got a training partner there with you.

Q At 6-3, 175 and 180, you guys are built more like defensive ends than the typical successful distance runner. Does being that big help or hurt you?

John The littler runners are usually faster. Big runners are usually good at longer distances. Little runners don't have much weight to carry around and they can just zip right down the track, especially in the 800 and mile. That's why we don't usually do the 800, it's a little short for us.

Marc They look more like they could be football players. They're both very athletic. They're good athletes in more than just running. If they would have chosen another sport, they would have excelled. They were very good soccer players, and they were very good basketball players until they decided not to pursue that. They only played for two years as freshmen and sophomores. They had never played before that, went out as freshmen and were stars on the freshman team. They are very good athletes.

Q What's a good, hard, typical training day for the twins?

Marc On their distance days, they're running about 10 miles. This time of year, they'll do that 3-4 days a week. They run it at a fast pace. They don't jog 10 miles, they run 10 miles. On days they do speed work, they're doing maybe three miles of repeats. Maybe 400 repeats or 800 repeats. ... It's unbelievable mileage. They've averaged more than 50 miles since last summer, even throughout the winter.

Q The twins say they basically sacrificed the entire regular season to get ready for the final three weeks.

Marc We didn't want to burn them out during the season. There were a lot of meets that they only ran one race. They're focused on their training. Sometimes you focus too much on winning meets and you can burn kids out, especially runners like them who are so dedicated to their practice schedule. We haven't really tried to win too many meets. We've only won one meet as a team. We've been runner-up in a couple meets. We had more success last year team-wise. ... This year, the focus has been to do our best getting to state, and then have success there.

Q Are the twins the real deal?

Marc They have done some amazing things the past four years.