Junior, Andrew Rowland, keeps a steady pace and a confident stride when the race starts and willingly falls to the middle of the pack. After all of the other runners’ adrenaline is spent, Rowland passes them with ease, one by one and takes the victory.            The American Mideast Conference (AMC) recognized Rowland’s success and awarded him Men’s Cross Country Runner of the Week for his Oct. 2 events.            “It’s an honor he much deserves,” said Jim Irvin, cross country coach. “It’s a new award, he’s only the fourth person to ever win it and that shows he’ll be competitive with any of the lead runners at any other schools.”            Rowland won the men’s 8K race at the University of Pitt-Greensburg Invitational with an individual time of 27:38 Saturday Oct. 2. His time was a record beating, 12 seconds ahead of his closest competitor.            With a shrug of his shoulders and a sip of his coffee, Rowland is humbled.            “People make it a big deal and it’s really not,” said the Pittsburgh native said, “I run, and I’m kind of fast but I don’t try any harder than anybody else. It’s not like I did it, I was just born with some ability and so I have a name I guess. I just run.”            Rowland grew up wanting to play soccer, but after being assigned to the junior varsity team, he felt defeated and thought he would try out his big brother’s passion; cross country. He ran all four years at Fox Chapel Area High School and received a scholarship to attend Geneva College in Beaver Falls, Pa.            Rowland spent two years running for Geneva College then took two years off and did some youth ministry work. At the age of 24, Rowland transferred his credits to Point Park and became the fastest runner since Jesse Bender four years ago.             “Jesse Bender was always the standard setter and he‘s 30 seconds faster than Jesse across the board,” said coach Irvin, “But not only that, he’s helping his entire team be faster.”            Senior cross country captain, Jared Ferree, recognizes the improvement in the team.            “He has helped us because he is motivating to us,” said the intelligence and national security major, “He is fast. He’s someone competitive. It‘s nice having someone that quick.”            “It feels really good to work out and do races,” Rowland said. “You get a really good feeling when you are done.”            The Pioneers received their first winning team title in over four years and placed best out of eight schools because of Rowland’s individual win at Pitt-Greensburg.            His confidence helps him keep his composure through both work outs and competitions.            “Normally everyone just shoots out of the box as fast as they can and then just dies,” Irvin said. “He does a slow steady pace throughout the entire run. Usually at the mile mark he is at like 18th-22nd place and then eventually comes into first and you can see how many people he has passed and they are all quality runners. He gives me a heart attack.”            Ferree agrees and is trying to instill the same method himself.            “He is consistent, he has a really good sense of pace,” Ferree said. “It’s good because he is the fastest kid I have ran with in four years. It really helps our scores too.”            At the Oct. 9 Carnegie Mellon University Invitational, Rowland placed 39th out of 234 competitors and the team placed 13th out of 27 teams.            Rowland’s patience in running competitions will also carry into his elementary education major.             “He is going to be a teacher,” Irvin said. “That will be a great thing for him to work with kids.”            Rowland’s abilities in running and his confidence are recognized by all of those involved in the cross country sport.            “I have already had two other coaches come up and compliment me about what a nice runner he [Rowland] is,” Irvin said. “And also what a nice young gentleman and what a great representative of Point Park he is.”            When it comes to workouts and races Rowland admits that the “middle is the hardest part.”            “In season, all you really look forward to is the end of the race,” Rowland said.            So far this season the men have run a collective 600-700 miles.            “The first half of the year we had to build up our base of running and endurance,” said Irvin, “We are probably doing 70-90 miles a week. Now we are focusing more on speed work which is trying to get the leg turn over an dour cardio system more for speed.”