Luke Pash's Commitment to North Carolina and His Goals for his Senior Season
Luke Pash is one of the top returners this season in the state of New Jersey and is the latest men’s distance commit for the University of North Carolina. He is the NJ Meet of Champs champion in the 1600 and indoor 3200, as well as the indoor and outdoor Group 4 state champion in the 1600. To finish his junior track season, he anchored a 4:02.24 1600 split in the NBNO DMR, moving Ridgewood up from 10th to 6th place. He was also an individual NXN qualifier last fall, where he placed 33rd (11th returner). He is a part of arguably the top men’s distance class for the class of 2025.
Take me through your recruiting process - how did it start out and get to you committing to North Carolina.
My process started the summer before my junior year. UNC (Coach Ian) had reached out to me in the middle of September before my cross country season started that year. I was super excited about everything and had no idea where I wanted to go yet because it was still super early. Recruiting definitely picked up a lot around and after NXN. The winter went by and I mostly was talking to the same schools and not a ton was going on. That changed in the spring though. I took an unofficial visit to UNC and I really loved it and that's when I decided to take an official visit in the summer/fall. In the middle of spring and summer, I had to narrow down a bunch to get to my 3 visits because that’s as many as I wanted to take. Me and Coach Ian stayed in touch a ton all the way up until my visit. I definitely felt that we built an amazing connection already before even going on the visit. When I went on my visit UNC just checked all my boxes. Great team connection, school environment, coaches, and the way they coach, and one of the biggest things being their confidence in me and what we can do as a team and program.
What other schools were you considering?
It came down to UNC, Wake Forest, and UVA.
Last year you qualified individually for NXN and placed 33rd there - what are your goals for this cross country season and your overall senior year
My goal for this cross country season is to compete like I belong. I know I do and not many people know my name as much as others but I wanna prove myself. I also think this year as a team we can do great things if we all work together and have fun doing it. The big goal right now is to win as much as possible individually and as a team. I think making it to NXN not only by myself but with this team would be incredible. Later in my senior year in the winter and spring is to see what I can do in any event. If that means breaking 4 minutes in the mile then yeah I’ll be ready for it. It’s every distance high schooler's dream so if I have a shot I’m gonna go for it.
You’re joining a stacked 2025 distance class to Chapel Hill next fall, including fellow Jersey native Joe Barrett. Did Joe’s commitment back in April have any influence on your decision on UNC?
I'm super excited for our team's future and I believe that we are going to do great things. Being able to work and train with these guys is gonna be so fun and I can’t wait for it. When I saw Joe commit it didn’t have any influence on my decision. I was focused on what and where I thought I could become great and it ended up being at the same place. Leading up to my decision, I definitely had thought about becoming his teammate potentially and I'm super excited about it.
This past track season, you had several sort of “break-out” moments throughout the year- from the state champs & meet of champs titles, to splitting a 4:02 leg in the DMR - what was your favorite moment this past season?
My favorite moment for this past track season was running 4:04 at Meet of Champs. This was for many reasons, the first being that it proved to myself that I could do great things and that my training and hard work had paid off. It was also so incredible because of everyone who was there to support me. The biggest part though was that it got our DMR team into the championship heat at NBNO which then set up for me to split 4:02 and become All-American with my team.
What does a typical training week look like for you? What’s your weekly mileage?
Over the summer my weekly mileage was around 65 with my biggest week being 73. During the cross country season with workouts, the average is around more like 57-61. Later in the season, we will cut down a bit and it’s mostly the same for winter and spring too with the average only going down a little bit.
What’s your favorite workout?
I love 400 repeats at like goal mile pace. We do in the spring 8x400 at goal mile with 2 minute recovery and reps number 3 and 7 being 2 seconds faster. This is my favorite because it gives me a great feel for how fit I am and also the confidence to run fast. I did this workout before MOC and I ran 4:04.
Who’s your favorite all-time athlete? Can be track & field or other sports.
Larry Fitzgerald is my favorite all-time athlete. I’m a Cardinals fan because of him and I loved his mentality and watching him play. It's really close between him and Javy Baez when he was on the Cubs because I’m a Cubs fan and I played baseball my whole life before high school when I started running.
What are your plans for this cross country season? What’s the schedule for this year?
My plans are to win as much as possible me and my team. We are racing Shore or Coach’s, Manhattan Invitational, Groups, MOC, NXR, and NXN.
We are also doing county stuff but not going all out for that - treating them as like workouts.
If you had any advice to give to anyone on the collegiate recruiting process, what would you give?
To really focus on what means the most to you when looking at what the college has to offer and that you don’t have to rush anything.
