Wyoming's Garrett Zans is not only excelling on the cross country team, he's got admirable goals for life after UW.

The Rock Springs native is an electrical engineer major with an emphasis on bioengineering.  Garrett hopes his UW education will help propel him to one day develop prosthetic and bionic limbs.

"Right now they're starting to work a lot better."  Zans said.  "They've made huge advances the last couple years, but there's still a lot of places to go.  To be able to give someone the opportunity to walk again, run again, or feel the ground is a life dream for me."

The senior will be a key piece to this year's cross country team.  "I really want to get all-conference.  Last year wasn't quite my year, but this year is going to be a good year."

Zans added staying in state was the right decision for him.  "It's really important for me to be able to represent UW. My entire life I was growing up hearing what the athletes were doing.  This year we have a lot of Wyoming runners coming in.  It's wonderful to represent my state and be around people I've known for a long time."

The first invitational of the season is September 6th in Fort Collins, hosted by Colorado State. Wyoming will participate in invites at Colorado Springs, Minnesota, Utah, and California.

While Mountain West Conference rivals are used to running at altitude, Garrett thinks the high elevation training will help particularly at Minnesota and California.  "Training at 7220 feet is a huge advantage.  I'm training at 85 miles per week right now, but at sea level it would be 100 miles.  The elevation is something very real and very effective."

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