By Scott Doane
UWRF Sports Information

Every sports team, whether it’s little league baseball or professional football, needs a leader. They need someone that can get them pumped and ready to go out and win a championship.

That is what senior Mark Hartwig brings to the Falcon men’s cross country team. Hartwig has been running for UW-River Falls for four years. He is a captain of the team and has been for two years.

Hartwig brings a lot of solid attributes to the Falcons. He is a good leader and is in charge of warming the team up before meets and cooling down afterwards. He also is a hard worker and a motivator.

"He brings a good attitude to the team," Falcon Coach Don Glover said about the senior captain, "He gets his team fired up and adds a lot to the team chemistry."

Hartwig isn’t a cross country novice either. Hartwig, originally from Little Falls, Minn., has been running competitively for seven years, since his sophomore year in high school. He gives credit to his brother for getting him started.

"My brother used to play football and got me to run cross country," Hartwig says about the beginning of his running career.

Hartwig is also a team player. He’d rather see his team do well as a whole, compared to him doing well individually.

"Being out there everyday, running with your friends," Hartwig said, "getting to know people, that is better than the competition." Even though he does enjoy those parts about cross country he is still competitive. He said that his best moment as a cross country runner was when he was a junior in high school. His high school team made it to state that year.
When Hartwig was choosing schools after he got done with high school, many things drew him to UW-River Falls. One of them was the solid group of runners that were on the Falcon team.

"Before I got here, I met the cross country team," Hartwig said about choosing schools, "they seemed like a bunch of good guys."

Another thing that made UW-River Falls appealing to Hartwig was the great agriculture program. Hartwig is an agriculture engineering major. He someday hopes to possibly own a farm or be a dairy farmer.

In his spare time, Hartwig is like most other college students. He and his cross country teammates enjoy playing other sports as well. Besides running, Hartwig says that basketball and volleyball are two of his favorite recreational sports. He also likes to run in his spare time as well. Like most college students, Hartwig also likes to play video games. Currently, he’s been playing NBA LIVE ’05 on the X-Box.

Hartwig, like most people, has things that he considers his favorites. He had a hard time choosing, but he said his favorite movie is "Joe Dirt." His favorite food is hamburgers. His favorite genre of music is country. His favorite sports team is the Minnesota Timberwolves. His favorite band is a local Twin Cities band named The Nadas.

Hartwig’s leadership and motivation have been very beneficial to the men’s cross country team. These qualities are what made him captain for two years. As for his predictions for this year he had none for himself, but he did have some for the team.

"Our goal as a team is to place forth in conference," Hartwig said. "Our guys seem like they’re running really well right now."

Mark Hartwig