This summer a young woman from Ukraine stopped by Pepperdine to drop off her résumé with the Pepperdine cross country team. That same woman Iryna Vashchuk is now both the men’s and women’s cross country assistant coach and is already making a noticeable difference in the cross country program.
Described by members of the team as kind dedicated and passionate for continuing to improve the running programs here at Pepperdine the cross country teams have taken an immediate liking to her referring to her to “Coach ‘I'” at practices and meets.
Despite no family history of running Vashchuk first found out about her talents as a competitive runner at the age of 14 by not only racing but finishing well in local meets.
By the age of 15 she had gotten her first taste of first place winning a 4x400m relay and taking second place in the individual 800m.
Later that year she qualified for the 1998 World Youth Games in Moscow where she qualified for finals. Soon afterward she began a two year study at the Olympic Reserve School in the capital of Ukraine a boarding school where she trained and competed on a team of seven girls.
Throughout her running career in Ukraine she typically trained twice a day and because they did not have a weight room they would often have to invent effective workouts of their own.
In 2000 she competed in the Junior World Championships and the following year ran in Italy. She has also competed in several other European countries with the Ukrainian National Team.
As her experience competing around the world grew she found out early on that her best race was the 800m achieving fourth place in a 1999 meet in Moscow.
However as several girls also saw the 800m as their strength the coach identified Coach Vashchuk’s talent and with the 2000 Junior World Championship soon approaching in Chile he moved her to the 1500m race. It quickly became her best race as she ultimately finished her career specializing in it.
While competing in Chile one of the girls from the Lithuanian team lived next door to Coach Vashchuk and told her about her experiences as a student at the University of Southern California.
At this point Coach Vashchuk was only 18 years old and did not speak a word of English. She was not fond of the idea of traveling and studying in a place she did not know and her father also was against the idea. She kept the brochure from USC at home and after two years of waiting pulled out the magazine and sent e-mail to the coaches at USC.
The staff at USC responded with an e-mail offering her acceptance less than 30 minutes later.
And her decision to attend was a great decision and one she truly enjoyed. Unlike earlier in her career she was able to practice on flat-level grass and had the chance to use the weight room.
While at USC she achieved her personal record time of 4:12 in the 1500m race.
Coach Vashchuk retired from her career in competitive running three years ago because of a lower back injury. After leaving USC she joined the Santa Monica Club where she ran eight to ten miles everyday for two years but was again forced to take a break due to the back pain.
To keep herself active she has since taken up the hobbies of skiing tennis and swimming three activities she was prohibited from doing during her running career as it interrupted her running program.
Vashchuk recently moved to Pacific Palisades and was in the process of looking for work contacting both UCLA and USC.
Neither university had openings and after hearing Pepperdine was also a Division 1 program she dropped off her résumé over the summer. She was called by cross country coach Head Coach Robert Radnoti soon after who said he was looking for a new assistant with good experience. So far she has brought just that.
“We’ve changed a lot of techniques to get our athletes running right Vashchuk said. By running the correct way they will save energy for their performance. We also are doing different types of drills and core exercises for the typical runner that they were not doing in the past. At practice I just try to correct the kids and help out as much as I can.”
As a serious runner Vashchuk knows and emphasizes the importance of mental stability as well as physical endurance.
“In cross country the mind means a lot— you really need to train the mind in order to succeed Vashcuk said. I like to share a lot of my stories and experiences with the kids whether about injuries competition training etc.”
Most importantly Vashchuk seems to be enjoying her experience so far at Pepperdine as much as the athletes enjoy having her.
“I really enjoy the team Vashchuk said. The kids are just great. They listen learn and are really willing to work hard. It surprisingly makes me really happy to wake up at 5:40 in the morning and drive to Pepperdine. I know what I want and they trust me. That means a lot for a successful relationship. If athletes don’t trust a coach the results will never be good.”
As far as she has brought the team already she feels Pepperdine still has a long way to go and has already thought about her long-term plans.
Because Pepperdine does not have a full-time position she is currently on a contract but only temporarily.
Her wish is that Pepperdine could create scholarships so the school could recruit more of the nation’s best runners to help the team succeed in future years.
She also hopes is to demonstrate to the athletic department that there is good reason to invest more money into the cross-country program for both the athletes and the coaches.
Both the men’s and women’s teams compete next on Sept. 11 in Irvine at the UC Irvine Invitational.