Knoch grad Mike Formica jumps to head of pack for IUP cross country, track and field

As devastating as the covid-19 pandemic was for many, a lucky few found silver linings. Count Knoch grad Mike Formica as one of the lucky ones.

With few other things to occupy his time during lockdowns, mask mandates and travel restrictions, Formica ran. And then ran some more.

Practically overnight, he went from afterthought to WPIAL Class 2A cross country champion. From obscure cross country and track runner to Division I prospect.

After spending two seasons at Youngstown State, Formica transferred to IUP for the 2023-24 academic year, and, in a short time, has shown he will be one of the PSAC’s top distance runners for the next couple of years. He earned all-conference honors in cross country in the fall after placing 15th in the PSAC championship.

Formica now heads into his first indoor track and field season with the Crimson Hawks, and he isn’t shy about setting big goals for himself.

“I definitely set some goals for this season,” he said. “I think it’s definitely good to always look ahead at what I want to do. The first goal that I have in mind is to run the provisional mark for nationals in the mile and 3K. If I run those times, those both would get me the school records.”

To say Formica’s running career is on the fast track is cliche. But it also is accurate. Once he won the 2020 WPIAL cross country championship as a senior — he finished 69th as a junior — he said his recruitment went from zero to 60.

That landed him at YSU, where he was part of the Penguins’ Horizon League outdoor track and field championship team in 2022. But Formica decided he needed to move on.

“My experience at YSU was good overall running-wise,” he said, “but in terms of the school and living in the city of Youngstown itself, it just wasn’t where I was happy. It became clear to me into my second year that I needed to make a change.”

Formica admitted he still was reluctant to put his name into the transfer portal. Once he did, he started reaching out to schools, and one of them was IUP.

Crimson Hawks coach Joey Zins had known Formica’s name from his WPIAL cross country championship but said he couldn’t recall formally recruiting him out of Knoch. But when Formica inquired about IUP’s program, Zins was more than happy to make a sales pitch.

“We’re obviously fortunate that he decided to continue his career here,” Zins said. “He really helped (cross country) improve a lot from the 2022 season. He’s at the front of the lineup for us consistently all year and just fit in great with the group that we had.

“His work ethic and desire really to kind of run at a high level was obvious from the get-go. He clearly wants to be as good as he possibly can be in the sport.”

Transferring to a new program usually means a period of adjustment for most athletes. Formica, however, took to his new environment right away, dropping nearly 90 seconds from his best 8K cross country time.

He credited Zins’ training program for helping him cut so much time. Formica said his regimen focused more on distance than intensity, so he felt fresher on race days.

There was a little self-motivation involved, too. He said he also felt a sense of urgency after under-performing during his stint at YSU.

“My mind set was really different this year,” said Formica, who, counting this season, has three seasons of track and field eligibility remaining. He has two more for cross country. “This was kind of a make it or break it year, so I really left everything out there every time that I raced.

“And I raced with the most confidence I’ve had since high school again and just believed I could compete with anybody.”

The new mental approach was paired with a tried-and-true physical formula that had worked for him in the past.

Zins talked about the way Formica always was running with the lead pack during cross country meets. That was how he ran at Knoch, so going back to that approach, Formica said, contributed to his success.

“In high school, I always went after races from the jump and attacked it from the front,” he said. “My first two years at YSU, one of the big philosophies they preached was sitting back and kicking later in the race. That works for a lot of people, but for me, that just didn’t work.

“So this year, I went back to how I raced my senior year of high school, where I went out with the leaders of the race and just gave myself a chance to stay up there. I felt like I was able to stay in touch a lot more mentally if I was always in touch with the lead pack.”

The Crimson Hawks open their indoor season Friday at — of all places — Youngstown State. Formica said he has no ill feelings toward the school or any of his former coaches and teammates. He said he still has friends in the running programs there.

But this will be his first test in track and field with his new team. Zins said Formica has the versatility to run anywhere from the mile to the 5K, but he said the mile and 3K probably will be his main events.

“But kind of want to see what he can run across all those disciplines and figure out where that might put him in the conference,” Zins said. “But also looking bigger than that, looking at what event he might be able to hit a provisional time for nationals.”

To reach the provisional time for nationals in the mile, Formica would have to run it in 4 minutes, 9 seconds. For the 3K, he would need to hit 8:19.

He said he has work to do to get his times down to those levels, but after the big drop he made in his cross country time, Formica is confident he can do it.

“It’s exciting to see I could make those kinds of jumps in just a few months,” he said, “so I’m really excited to see where I can take it in the next couple of years.”