How Coach Ryan Waite Produced an NCAA Indoor Mile Champion — The Scouting System, Race Simulation Workouts, and Mental Edge That Won It
THE RUNNING EFFECT PODCAST
Dominic Schlueter
4.9 • 821 Ratings
🗓️ 22 March 2026
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The man behind one of the most exciting moments in collegiate track this season is here: BYU Assistant Coach Ryan Waite. His athlete, Carter Cutting, just claimed the 2026 NCAA Indoor Mile title.
Ryan isn't just a coach. He's a five-time All-American who ran these same kinds of races, felt that same pressure, and now pours every bit of that experience and wisdom into the athletes he develops.
He is the current Assistant Coach for the BYU men’s distance program; he returned after a successful tenure as the head coach of the University of Delaware. He was instrumental in assisting the BYU Men’s Cross Country team to a National Championship in 2024. He also played a pivotal role in coaching steeplechase Olympian James Corrigan.
Before coaching, Coach Waite was a standout middle-distance runner for the Cougars as a five-time All-American and three-time Conference Champion. He was a part of the school's elite distance medley relay (9:29.0) at the time; he is fifth all-time at BYU in the indoor 800m (1:48.49); and sixth all-time in the outdoor 800m (1:46.83).
The résumé speaks for itself. Now let's hear from the man behind it.
Tap into the Ryan Waite Special.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Coach Ryan Wait, welcome to the Running Effect podcast. It's a privilege and an honor to have you. I had on Carter on the podcast yesterday. I've known him since he was in high school and he kind of documented, took me through the almost becoming infamous workout that you sketched up for him. How did you discern what schools to put on the backs of his teammates that he was at racing around the track yeah so |
| 0:23.2 | really we we were just taken at one race at a time um so it was only the as i looked back at the workout |
| 0:29.3 | afterwards i realized it was only the people that were in his prelim heat um so that was all |
| 0:35.8 | that we had scouted out we weren't going to take anything for granted. |
| 0:39.4 | We weren't just going to take it for granted that he would automatically advance to the final. |
| 0:44.2 | We knew we had to earn that. And we weren't going to focus on anybody else until after he had |
| 0:50.1 | done that initial prelim. I talked to him about how sometimes prelims are more nerve-wracking |
| 0:55.7 | than the finals when you get to the finals. It's kind of like, you know, you can race a little |
| 0:59.6 | looser. But as we see every year, sometimes they're kids outdoors that don't even make the national |
| 1:04.5 | meat because stuff goes down at regionals are very often indoor meat in this case and scenario. |
| 1:09.1 | Don't make the final just because the tactics, |
| 1:12.0 | the shoving, the pushing, the fart lick style is crazy. |
| 1:15.9 | From the coaches lens, are you more nervous |
| 1:17.9 | before the prelim or the final? |
| 1:20.7 | I was pretty nervous for both. |
| 1:23.5 | I don't know if I, I don't know if I could say |
| 1:26.4 | which one was worse. I mean, once you get to the final, I don't wanna if I, I don't know if I could say which one was worse. |
| 1:28.3 | I mean, once you get to the final, I don't want to say it's gravy. |
| 1:31.3 | Like you're there to do something and you have high expectations and hopes of what can be done. |
| 1:37.3 | But you know that you at least put yourself in a position to have a chance and to do well and you can feel good |
| 1:45.9 | about that. The prelim sometimes feels like such a crapshoot that it's pretty nerve-wracking. |
| 1:51.3 | So I would say I was more excited for the final, maybe more nervous for the prelim, to be honest. |
... |
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