Australian Standout Tiernan off to Hot Start with OTC Elite
Photo by Jake Willard
By Curtis Anderson | April 16, 2021
EUGENE, Ore. - Shortly after Patrick Tiernan stepped off the track at the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha having failed to reach the final of the 5,000 meters, he knew it was time to embark on a new phase of his running career.
His coach at the time, Marcus O'Sullivan, agreed.
At first, the plan called for Tiernan to get through the 2020 Olympic cycle. Only then would he begin the process of searching for a different training environment.
But the pandemic accelerated those plans, and this past August, Tiernan, a native Australian and former Villanova standout, became the newest member of Oregon Track Club Elite.
One of the main reasons Tiernan chose to move to TrackTown USA was the chance to be mentored by OTC Elite coach Mark Rowland, now in his 12th season at the helm of the Nike-sponsored club.
"Mark was one of the first people that came to mind," Tiernan said. "He's obviously had great success with his athletes and his training philosophy is fantastic ... he gets his athletes ready at the right time, and that's huge for me.
"I've always been able to compete during the season, but when it came to the major championships, I wasn't always in the shape I needed to be in. That's mostly on my end, not Marcus. I get a little anxious at times and push certain days more than others. That's easy to do when you're training on your own."
So far, the early results have been encouraging.
Last December, in his first official race wearing an OTC Elite singlet, Tiernan set the Australian 10,000 meter record with a time of 27 minutes, 22.55 seconds, safely under the Olympic qualifying standard of 27:28.00.
He backed that up by winning the Las Vegas Half Marathon (62:26) in January and also clocked a personal best in the mile (3:56.82) at the UW Invitational at the Dempsey Indoor in February.
The 26-year-old Tiernan said Rowland’s approach of individualized training for each athlete is a huge boost moving forward.
“Everyone on the team has a different plan for the year,” he said. “That’s a strong attribute for a coach. My first six months here has made that clear. Mark makes sure I’m doing what I need to do.”
Photo by Jake Willard
It didn’t hurt that O’Sullivan, the legendary Irish miler, shares many of the same personality traits of Rowland, the 1988 Olympic bronze medalist in the 3,000m steeplechase for Great Britain.
“They’re similar people, so it has been an easy transition for me,” Tiernan said. “It’s fantastic to be in an environment now where Mark is going to push me a little more than I’m used to … he’s very attentive to everything that’s going on with each athlete and what their specific needs are.”
Born and raised in Queensland, Australia, Tiernan first learned to play cricket before discovering running as a youngster.
In 2012, at the age of 17, he won the 1,500m and 5,000m at the U20 Australian Championships. He also claimed the individual title at the U20 Australian Cross Country Championships that season.
Those early accomplishments ultimately led Tiernan to Villanova where he became one of the most decorated athletes in school history. The four-time all-American in cross country finished second to Oregon’s Edward Cheserek at the 2015 NCAA Championships, but came back the following season to beat Cheserek in the 2016 race to close out his collegiate career.
“Yeah, I was trying to keep that under wraps my first few months here,” Tiernan said. “I kept my Villanova cap at bay when we first moved out. That race was huge for me, not because of who I beat, but because the national championship is something you always work towards.
“I had finished second the year before, it was my last year at Villanova and I was coming off the Rio Olympics, and I was pretty disappointed with my run there. So that fall, it was all about winning that race.”
For the record, Tiernan placed 13th in his heat of the 5,000m in Rio, failing to reach the final. However, after holding off Cheserek and Justyn Knight of Syracuse at the NCAA Cross Country Championships three months later, he was excited to launch his pro career.
“Having that big result at the end was a good way to finish college,” Tiernan said. “It was a big turning point for me. It gave me a lot of confidence moving forward.”
Tiernan used the NCAA title as a springboard to the 2017 season in which he placed 11th in the 5,000m and 22nd in the 10,000m at the World Championships in London. He also finished 13th at the World Cross Country Championships in Uganda.
Photo by Jake Willard
The next two years were not quite as productive.
Tiernan was disqualified from the 10,000m at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, and placed 10th in his semifinal heat of the 5,000m at the Doha World Championships, a disappointing finish after setting his PR of 13:12.68 a few months earlier.
“Not making the final (in Doha) spurred me on to making a change in my training,” he said. “I want to go into those races with confidence, make the final and compete when I get there.”
Tiernan was not alone when he arrived in Oregon. He was accompanied by his fiancée, Angel Piccirillo, who is currently living in Bend and training with Oiselle’s Littlewing Athletics club. Piccirillo, a former middle distance standout at Villanova, was a nine-time Penn Relays champion for the Wildcats, the 2016 NCAA indoor mile runner-up, and a member of the 4x800m relay team which holds the collegiate record of 8:17.45.
“We were the same year at Villanova, and then we hung around Philadelphia afterwards, and that’s when we got together,” Tiernan said. “The move out West was something that both of us wanted to do.”
Although Tiernan is not “officially” on the Australian Olympic team at the moment, he is confident that his second-place finish at the Australian Trials (held in December of 2019) and his recent national 10K record will secure a spot on the team.
“I’ve done everything I can to be selected, and I’m confident I will be picked for that team,” he said.
Despite the challenges of navigating an outdoor track season during a pandemic, Tiernan is thrilled to be in a supportive training environment in Eugene, especially with a main target in mind - the 10K in Tokyo.
“It’s nice to be back in the cycle where you have a goal race that you are targeting for the entire season,” he said. “Now, it’s learning how to race, and how to compete, so when it comes to July 31 (in Tokyo), I’ll be ready to put myself up there for a very high finish.”
Photo by Jake Willard