Pommier wins in 1,500 m race at NCAA Division III national championships
By FRED KRONER
Throughout his running career, Gabe Pommier has been surrounded by greatness.
He was a member of Mahomet-Seymour’s state championship cross-country team as a high school senior (2016) and ran for Class 2A state runner-up teams as a sophomore and junior.
On the track, Pommier was the Bulldogs’ top 1,600-meter runner in 2017 when M-S pulled off a top-10 team performance at the state finals.
Individually, he was always close – but a near-miss – for accolades.
After running 3 miles at the 2016 state cross-country meet, Pommier was 3 seconds away from earning all-state honors. He finished 27th. Only the top 25 were certified as all-staters.
The following spring, in the 1,600 meters, he qualified for the IHSA state finals and placed 10th. Yet, only the top nine were accorded all-state recognition.
Pommier never stopped trying. This July, he will celebrate nine consecutive years of running at least 1 mile each day, no matter the temperatures, no matter the conditions.
He faced adversity along the path to success.
“I ran a mile for seven weeks in a boot (after breaking a foot),” Pommier said. “That’s part of the discipline. If I gave up, I might not be here (at this level) today.”
For college, Pommier opted to run for North Central, in Naperville, which has a decades-old legacy of success in the running sports under Hall-of-Fame coach Al Carius, a former University of Illinois athlete who coached 19 national championship teams in cross-country at the college and 12 national title teams in track and field during his 54-year tenure.
Pommier was building up to compete in the 5,000 meters.
“I never got the chance,” he said.
In 2020, he qualified for the NCAA Division III indoor finals in the 5K. The meet was canceled by the coronavirus pandemic.
Then came the COVID-eliminated outdoor season of 2020, followed by a full year in which Pommier’s ability to run with others who could push him to greater heights was curtailed.
“A lot of people on the team quit and I lost training partners,” Pommier said.
Like good runners do, Pommier took it all in stride. He worked out on his own – and when time permitted, returned to his hometown to run with athletes from his alma mater.
His efforts paid off last month when Pommier won the 1,500 meters in the NCAA Division III outdoor national championships. The years of toil and perseverance finally paid off handsomely.
His time was 3 minutes, 46.63 seconds. It is the second-best effort ever at North Central College, which prides itself on producing champion distance runners.
Pommier’s time was quicker than anyone who competed in the 2021 Division II national meet this year. In the Division I meet, the 12th-place time this spring was 3:46.12.
His discipline and determination carried Pommier to the top of the podium and proved that he is one of the country’s elite.
“You could pay all the money in the world, but it won’t make you a better runner,” Pommier said. “It all comes down to you and how badly you want it.”
The obstacles of the past 15 months served as additional motivation.
“It made me have to dig deep and remind myself why I love running,” Pommier said.
Though he was top-ranked in the 1,500 event nationally throughout the outdoor season in 2021, Pommier acknowledged there was concern.
“This wasn’t the most competitive season,” he said. “We didn’t travel a lot. Most of the meets were local in Naperville.
“I didn’t test myself as much as I wanted, but I kept grinding.”
Pommier was able to compete in the prestigious Drake Relays and carved out a runner-up finish.
“That was my first big-time race,” he said. “There were Division II and some Division I guys there.”
Unlike in high school, where athletes earn a state-meet berth based on their efforts at a sectional meet, collegiate runners can achieve a pre-determined time to receive an automatic bid to nationals.
“I hit the mark in late February,” Pommier said. “When I knew I didn’t have to worry about hitting the time, I could focus on training.
“I did the 800 (meters) some. The big key was figuring out how to double (in the two races). It built discipline and gave me extra speed work.”
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In the 1,500-meter preliminaries at nationals, Pommier won his heat with a 3:51.76 clocking. He took the lead in the first 100 meters and never relinquished it. He was seeded second heading into the finals.
As he stepped to the starting line on the afternoon of Saturday, May 29 for the 12-runner finals at Irwin Belk Track in Greensboro, N.C., Pommier tried his best to create a stress-free approach mentally.
“I told myself, ‘if you run what you’ve been running all season, you’ll do pretty well,’” he related. “I wasn’t cocky, but I was being confident.
“I knew on an average day, I could do OK.”
His confidence was bolstered by the preparation.
“Each race (during the season) was a dress-rehearsal,” Pommier said. “I practiced going out hard, I practiced closing hard, I practiced even splits (for each lap) and I practiced running a sub-2 minutes for the last 800 meters.
“I knew I was ready for anything.”
He refrained from producing a strategy for his last race of the season.
“I didn’t have a plan going in,” Pommier said. “I found myself in front, and I ran with it. I didn’t look back.”
Thanks to technology, he had a good idea how much distance he had over the other 11 pursuers as the race progressed.
“Coming down the straight-away, I could see on the Megatron how close they were behind me,” Pommier said. “I knew they were close.”
His time of 3:46.63 was his personal-best by more than 1 ½ seconds.
His winning margin was more than three-fourths of a second. The runner-up, Jacob Ridderhoff, from Washington University, finished in 3:47.47.
Carius, now an assistant at North Central who works with distance runners, was not able to attend the meet in person.
It didn’t matter to Pommier.
“When we got to 200 meters (to go), I knew he was there pushing me in spirit,” Pommier said. “With 100 meters to go, I put on the gas.”
He finished the event as the wire-to-wire leader and his first career national championship.
“When I got to the finish line, I was smiling,” Pommier said. “I was so happy.
“It was an incredible feeling.”
He had a myriad of thoughts flashing through his mind.
“It was very emotional,” he continued. “Everything in my life, the people in my life.
“It had been a tough year-and-a-half. The amount of work – I can’t explain it – it’s something you do every day and that adds up.
“You follow the process and wait for the good to happen. All of the pieces came together that day.”
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The numbers on the scoreboard, where the leaders are listed with their results, are only a portion of the story for Pommier.
“My goal is not time, but to compete and be the best I could be,” he said. “If you think about time, it will inhibit you and hold you back.”
When he thinks how far he has come during his running career, the improvement goes beyond the actual running.
“There are things bigger than running,” Pommier said. “Anybody can run.
“It’s about the person I matured into. Back in high school, I would blow up and not run well in the big races.
“It’s more who I developed into. It took a lot mentally. You have to be tough in the head. The tough part is finding yourself at the stage where you can put it together.”
In the weeks since his collegiate season ended, Pommier hasn’t taken a break. He continues to run daily, eyeing July 20, which will mark the nine-year anniversary of running at least a mile each day.
He won’t stop then, either.
“No chance,” Pommier said. “I’ll run as long as my body can get me to that mile.”
Before he focuses on a long-term goal – “maybe I’ll run a marathon,” he said – Pommier must make another decision.
Due to the repercussions of COVID-19, the NCAA granted every athlete who participated during the 2020-21 school year an extra year of eligibility, if they want to take advantage.
Pommier completed all course requirements for his bachelor’s degree in environmental studies and is looking forward to joining the workforce full-time, but is also tempted by the possibilities.
He has one more season of eligibility for all three of his sports at North Central: cross-country, indoor track and outdoor track.
It would be a fitting reward for a 2020-21 season when Pommier had no meets in cross-country, just four indoor track meets and limited travel outdoors.
“I’m almost to the point I want to end on top,” he said, “but now that I have seen success, opportunities are coming through.”
He has until late July to finalize a decision that could be influenced by how quickly his startup aquaculture business takes root.
Pommier is growing coral in a 1,200-square-foot building and said, “in three months, it will be kicking.”
He plans to sell wholesale and to hobbyists. As yet, the business doesn’t have a name.
Besides running a business and running on the roads and trails around the area, Pommier is working with his father, Matt, this summer with Mahomet Landscapes.
One thing is certain. Whether he competes again as a collegian, Pommier won’t leave the competitive world of athletics behind.
“I would like to train area runners,” he said.
Congratulations Gabe on an amazing running career! I am super proud of you!