Among the highlights of the 2024 NCAA Cross Country Championship was 19-year-old Virginia Tech sophomore George Couttie finishing 14th. As a freshman last fall, George placed 46th at the Division II Cross Country Championship for the University of Charleston. Fast-forward a year and George has earned All-American honors at the Division I level after his standout performance in Madison.

Following his NCAA breakthrough, George claimed the runner-up spot at the U20 European Cross Country Championships, finishing just behind Niels Laros — the sixth-place finisher in the Olympic 1500m this summer in Paris.

George shared about why he decided to transfer, what’s driven his massive improvement this year, and what it’s like training under Ben Thomas — the same coach who works with 1500m Olympic champion Cole Hocker. George also shared how he uses cross training to supplement his mileage, his running background growing up in the U.K., what makes the Hokies team so special, and his big goals for the next few years.

As a true sophomore, George is quickly becoming one of the top names to watch in the collegiate ranks. He’s a rising star positioned to become one of the best middle-distance runners in the track season to come.

This interview has been edited lightly for length and clarity:

Jasmine Fehr: You placed 14th at the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships after placing 46th last year at the Division II level. Was your result a surprise or did you see this coming?

George Couttie: At the start of the season, I didn’t see it coming at all. We thought we could make it as a team and I thought I might be able to make it as an individual, but it was never like, ‘I'm going to go and get All-American.’ I was like, ‘If I get there, that’ll be good.’ But as the season went on, our team was just racing so well. We got to the race and I just felt really good. I won Regionals the week before and was in a really good place. I've been getting better and better with every single race.

Going in, I definitely expected that was where I'd be trying to finish. That was my goal on the start line. It was quite different from Division II. How deep the field is just crazy in Division I! There's no drop-off in standard for the whole race. Everyone is so good, so every person you can beat is amazing.

What made you decide to transfer? Why did you start in Division II to begin with?

I had been planning on going to America for a long time before I actually went. When I first decided I wanted to go, I was only a 16 minute 5K guy, so Division II and JUCO is where I was looking. I got a lot better pretty quickly. I got some Division I offers, but I'd already made my decision of where I was going to go. I always knew I could transfer and I just wanted to do a year [at the University of Charleston] and see what the feel was like.

I knew Division II’s competition was definitely not something to be frowned at. There are some incredible athletes in Division II and I knew that if I really needed to, I could move up. My first year, I was pretty much unbeaten until nationals in cross country.

Then on the track, I ran pretty well. I was battling a couple of injuries and a bit of illness indoors and outdoors but still performed pretty well. I just needed that next level of training group and that next level of competition to push me in the right direction.

What made you decide on Virginia Tech?

They have amazing facilities and everything’s pretty close together. The indoor track, outdoor track, and cross course – you can walk to all of them from each other in five minutes. We also have an amazing team. I get along with the guys really well and we’re a hard working group.

Then obviously Coach [Ben] Thomas is just an unbelievable coach. He's obviously got the Olympic [1500m] champion who trains there as well. His coaching has really worked with me and I’ve already improved leaps and bounds just being there for such a short period of time.

Do you ever get to train with Cole Hocker or the other pros Ben Thomas coaches?

We see him around. His schedule is completely different from ours because of the Olympics and all his other things. But we see him there. We've done a workout or two where they've hopped in with us. It's not like we do everything with them, but they’re around which is quite cool.

Just being around the Olympic champion must do a lot for your confidence. You have the same coach and could have a similar trajectory to him!

Hopefully that’s the plan! Anywhere near that trajectory would be amazing. It’s very cool to see him around. To have his coach as our coach just filled me with confidence that I don’t need to question anything that he says. I just do it and know it's going to work.

You raced a lot of 1500s last season. What was it like transitioning back to cross country?

It was really only last year when I started doing the 1500m. I was more of a 5K guy in high school. I went to Europeans in the 5K for Great Britain just before my senior year of high school. Then I got to college and was like, ‘I want to run the 1500m.’ I just had way more success running the 1500m than the 5K. I came from quite an aerobic background, so I've always known that I've had a pretty decent engine.

Cross is where I started my running. I barely even ran track up until a pretty late age. Everything was just cross, so I have quite a background in it – but the 10K was definitely a jump. Regionals was a completely different beast than the 8K.

The 8K is a bit more manageable, but the 10K is really hard. Nationals was maybe the hardest race I've ever done. It hurt way too early and got hard very quickly. But luckily we managed to battle through it.

How did you push through that?

I just remember what happened last year in Division II: I went out pretty hard, died, and came 46th. I thought I should have been higher and I wasn't going to let that happen again. This time, I got off a bit more reserved. I got through 5K and then the front group put in a massive surge. I kind of fell back and was in like 40th around 6K. I spent the entire race just picking through.

I felt so good at 8K, like I could finally start moving. Then as soon as you get around the bend, you can see the finish line. Coming from a 1500m background, that's one of my favorite places to be because I know that no one's going to beat me on that last bit.

You improved a ton from last year. How were you able to make such a big jump within a year?

My coach from back home kept me on low mileage and didn’t try to push me stupidly hard to be an amazing junior. It doesn't matter how good you are as a junior; it’s how good you are as a senior. That’s where you make your career. So I've been on quite low mileage. I've only just started hitting 100km [62 miles] a week. I've hit it three times this season. I'd never done that before. I maxed out at 80 or 90 [49 or 55 miles] last year. I did a lot of cross training as well, so I feel like I’m a lot more aerobically developed this year than I was last year.

Then it’s just stacking years on years. Consistency in this sport is massive. If you can go year after year without any major injuries, you can become really good.

You mentioned that you add in some cross training as well. Without giving away too many details, how do you structure your training?

I run 100km a week and then on some of the running days I’ll either swim or do a lot of biking. Usually in a week I can hit four hours of cross training. Sometimes more, but it completely depends. Coach [Thomas] sends out the weekly plans and they’re different every week, so I have no idea what I’m getting each week.

I very much dislike cross training. I hate swimming and I hate biking. I'm bad at both of them. I get absolutely dropped in the pool by everyone and I get dropped on the bike too – but it's really good for you. I have friends under different coaches who do a lot of cross training and it's really worked for them as well. From what I can see, at least from my experience, there's no downside to cross training.

You're only a sophomore and have two more years to continue improving in the NCAA. What are your goals for the next few years?

My goal is to try and win as many titles as possible – maybe in cross one day, but mostly on the track: the mile, the 3K, the 1500m, maybe the 5K, something like that. I'd like to win some individual titles.

I'd also love to win a DMR title with my team. We'd definitely love to win a team title at Virginia Tech since we’ve never won a team title in school history – in any sport – so we'd love to bring the first team title back to Virginia Tech. I definitely think we have a team of guys capable of doing so.

You qualified for NCAAs with the team through an at-large bid. What did that mean to you?

It meant everything. It was absolutely amazing. That was probably one of the best feelings I've ever had in my running career. Going into the start of the season, we all had the idea that we wanted to go to Nationals, but we didn't know if it was going to be possible. Each race we ran better and each race we grew more confident.

We had no points on the last day, so we had to race well at regionals. Everyone pulled their weight, everyone did exactly what they were meant to do, and everyone performed on that day. To get there was just an unbelievable feeling.

I honestly believe that if I wasn't going with my team, I don't think I would have performed at Nationals as well as I did. Just having the team atmosphere makes it so much fun and you feel so much more at ease. It’s great to have a good team around you of guys who are all willing to give it absolutely everything on the cross country course.