Jeff Schirmer’s domination of the Missouri Valley Conference has spread throughout his entire career as an SIU cross country runner.

This season, though, he will look to extend that domination to the national level.

Schirmer won the MVC championship last season as a sophomore and already has his eyes set on the title of All-American this season.

Head cross country coach Matt Sparks said he believes Schirmer has the talent to be an All-American.

Once a runner who got by on talent alone, Schirmer has now acquired the work ethic to make some noise on a national stage, Sparks said.

“He never trained over the summer before, but he’s still dominated,” Sparks said. “Now he’s got a good base of summer training. He knows that he’s got the talent to compete, but he just has to put in the work.”

Schirmer had a successful 2007 season to say the least. Not only did he help his team to an MVC title and win the individual MVC championship, he also went undefeated in conference play.

Sparks said one of the biggest qualities Schirmer brings to the team is his confidence, which Schirmer said has helped propel him to a regional heavyweight.

“I hope I get it,” he said. “It’s one of my main goals. I set goals last year, and I accomplished them. I’m just trying to go as far as I can at the national level.”

Sparks said Schirmer’s confidence permeates to the entire team. Sparks said because both Schirmer and senior runner Mohamed Mohamed have it, it rubs off on the whole team.

But Schirmer has experienced success before.

He helped his Triad High School’s track team win a Mississippi Valley Conference championship as he won the 3,200-, 1,600-, 800- and 3,200-meter relays.

Sparks said he was pleased to see the change in Schirmer’s work ethic between his first two years at SIU and this summer.

“The first two years he didn’t have the greatest work ethic,” he said. “He did fewer miles than some guys. He was just able to win by sheer talent. This summer he’s invested more into his work ethic. He’s put in a good summer of training, which is something he’s never done before.”

Schirmer said the transition from high school to college is a big leap.

“I started cross country my junior year of high school,” he said. “I didn’t really do many miles. I just kind of showed up for race days. The biggest difference between high school and college cross country is the amount of miles you put in every week.”

Schirmer has already gotten off to a good start this season. He won the SIU Early Bird in convincing fashion and finished the 6K run with a time of 19 minutes, 5.11 seconds. The next runner finished 26 seconds behind Schirmer, which is a huge margin.

Schirmer will get his next chance to show his determination to achieve All-American status when the team travels to Eastern Illinois on Sept. 12 to compete in the Panther Open.