Knight brings Worlds experience to NCAA cross

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

Justyn Knight was calm as could be. In the tense final hour leading up to the IAAF World Outdoor Championships 5,000-meter semifinals, the 21-year old from Toronto felt no pressure.

All round him, older athletes and veterans of global championships were fidgeting and anxious.

“I went into that semifinal the most relaxed person ever,” said Knight, a senior this fall at Syracuse.

“I’d never run in front of a crowd that big before, but I was just there soaking up the experience.”

But Knight, making his first big-time appearance on the track for Canada, did more than that. He took note of the fact when Mo Farah came up alongside him, and then took his mind back to his own breathing. 

With 1,000 meters to go, Knight told himself that he liked his spot. Maybe he could hang on. With 400 to go, he was near the back of the lead pack but still only a couple of strides from the front. He kicked to fourth place and advanced to the final. 

Knight turned at the finish line and found a friendly face. He spotted Eric Jenkins and asked, “Hey man, did I make it (to the final)?”

They looked at the scoreboard together. Knight had advanced. Jenkins, an American, missed the cut.

Knight spotted Farah. 

“I thought, ‘Hey, we’re going to be in the finals together. This would be a good opportunity to introduce myself,’” Knight said. “But in my head I was like, ‘OK, Justyn. Don’t fanboy him. Just go up to him and act normal, congratulate him.’ And then I went up to him and said ‘God, I’m a big fan of yours. I’ve looked up to you for so long!’ 

“I kind of laughed about it later.”  

The World Championships represented something of a rite of passage for Knight in his development from college star to aspiring professional and Olympian. 

Knight went on to finish ninth in the global final, six seconds out of the medals. 

A difference-maker at Syracuse

In the hours after the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational on Oct. 13, Knight and his Orangemen teammates were in a Chili’s at the Detroit airport glued to the TV on the wall. The Syracuse football team had struck first against No. 3 Clemson.

“We were up 7-0 and thought was amazing in itself,” said Knight, who had defeated Stanford’s Grant Fisher and a trio from Northern Arizona earlier that afternoon in a loaded men’s 8-kilometer championship race. 

By the time Knight and his coaches and teammates boarded the plane, Syracuse was leading 17-14. 

“I kept my data on (my phone) as long as possible, but I had to turn it off eventually,” he said.

The team arrived home to news of Syracuse’s biggest win in a decade. 

“I’m a pretty big Syracuse football fan,” Knight said.

His allegiance to the Toronto Raptors runs deep, too. He grew up enthralled by the NBA. Knight and his father shared a love of the Chicago Bulls, and Michael Jordan, when he was little. 

“I had the (Bulls) uniform,” Knight said. “I wore it all day and slept in it at night.”

Knight played basketball from first grade through 10th and he made a traveling AAU team that competed in big tournaments in the U.S. 

“I started to realize it’s probably not my best sport,” he said.

Knight began running, and racing, and was a quick study. As a 12th-grader at St. Michael’s College High School, Knight won Ontario’s OFSAA Cross Country title and the following June he ran 8:07.95 for 3,000 meters at the Hamilton Twilight.

In February of 2014, he committed to Syracuse. 

It was a choice that made sense. Syracuse is a four-hour drive from the Toronto suburb of Vaughan, where Knight grew up. And coach Chris Fox was in the process of building a winner in upstate New York. 

There was, in fact, some hesitation to Fox offering Knight a scholarship. The coach had come to revive the distance running program at Syracuse with the idea that it would work to develop U.S. runners, sticking with a recruiting philosophy adhered to by programs such as Colorado. 

But in passing up Knight, Fox today is willing to admit that would have been a big mistake.

“Yeah, I’d say it seems a little bit silly (now),” Fox said. “I’d say (that thinking) seems passe’ now, or gingoistic, or whatever, especially since (Knight) lives closer than 90 percent of the guys on the team. If I had to tell someone younger than me to do that (recruit a non-U.S. athlete) or not, I’d say absolutely do it. You don’t pass on an 8:08 guy.”

Knight came into Syracuse still young to the sport, but learned quickly from upperclassmen such as Martin Hehir, who became an important mentor. 

And in 2015, with Knight finishing fourth, Syracuse made history with its first NCAA cross country championship in 64 years. 

Knight has only continued to get better, and become more and more ingrained, and important, to Syracuse athletics.

“He’s completely coachable,” said Fox, who made the trip to London with Knight.

“He wants to know each day what he’s supposed to do, and that’s exactly what he does.”

A year ago, Knight finished second at the NCAA cross country final to Villanova’s Patrick Tiernan as both men prevented Oregon’s Edward Cheserek from winning his fourth consecutive title. 

Over the winter, Knight finished second to Cheserek in the NCAA indoor 3,000 final. 

And last spring in Eugene, after the NCAA men’s outdoor 5,000 final dawdled through a first mile of five minutes, Fisher outkicked everyone in the final lap to claim the title. Knight was six-tenths of a second back, in third.

Three near-misses in the past year have set the stage for a final opportunity for Knight to leave an even bigger mark for Syracuse before he graduates.

“He lost to three superstars last year and was in every race,” Fox said. “To do what he did in the semifinals at Worlds kind of redeems a couple of losses that were sour in his mouth.”

To be sure, it’s a motivated, experienced, focused Knight that is preparing to ace those tests in 2017-18, including the Atlantic Coast Conference championship meet Friday at E.P. “Tom” Sawyer State Park in Louisville, Ky., also the venue Nov. 18 for the NCAA finals.

The performance in London, in August, has put him in position to aim higher than ever.

And Knight's status at Syracuse is nearing its pinnacle. He is the one now that the younger members of the Syracuse team look to for advice. He's the one that could  help cinch the deal when new recruits come for official visits.

“The one thing it’s done for me, it’s helped me grow up a lot,” Knight said. “I’ve been pretty mature as an NCAA runner since I got (to Syracuse). I haven’t had a problem adjusting to how things work. But to run against (Yomif) Kejelcha, Mo Farah, Paul Chelimo, Mo Ahmed, and keep myself in the same game as them, has helped me realize I’m closer to my dream than I thought I was.”