Tony Rizzo ’02 was initially guided toward North Central College by high school coach Jim Macnider ’72, and meeting with Cardinal head coach Al Carius (H) ’16 on a campus visit sealed the deal.
“(Macnider) basically said this was where I needed to go and what I needed to do to become a better runner,” Rizzo said. “It was my recruiting visit when I met Al for the first time and I decided this was where I wanted to go.”
Macnider’s counsel proved wise as Rizzo collected nine All-America awards in track and field, the sixth-highest career total in the history of the program, along with a pair of All-America honors and a team national title in cross country.
Rizzo’s first national championship experience was at the 1996 finals in cross country, where he placed sixth overall and the Cardinals finished a close second in the team standings. The following year, his 10th-place finish led North Central to the finish line in what the team feared might be a repeat of the previous year’s showing.
“I thought I had let the team down,” he said. “I was leading for about half the race. The course in Boston had gotten a lot of rain the previous two days and was really muddy, and I just did not know how to navigate the mud. I went up this hill they call Big Bear Hill, and I was just torched after that.
“We saw Jack Kafel ’99 running toward us and yelling that we had won by two points. We were so excited, we picked Jack up and dropped him in the mud. We were so happy and forgot about what we thought went wrong with our individual performances because we accomplished our goal as a team.”
Each of Rizzo’s All-America performances on the track came in 800- and 1,500-meter events, though the initial plans had been for him to race longer distances.
“I ran the 10,000 meters at our first outdoor meet, and I didn’t run poorly, but Al also wanted to put me in the 1,500 to see what I could do,” he said. “I just missed qualifying for nationals, so that’s when the training started to change.”
Now a high school head coach in his own right, Rizzo extols many of the same virtues common in the North Central program today, central among which is the reinforcement of the team dynamic among all members of the squad.
“There’s a place for everyone on the team,” he said. “I make sure I touch base regularly with every single one of my athletes, not just the top performers, so they are comfortable with me and know that I care.”
