Sophomore Mathias Deldicque started running when he was in seventh grade. His first goal: Beat his older brother.

“My brother is two years older than me, and he also started running when he was in seventh grade,” he said. “I was excited to run so I could try to beat him. Maybe it wasn’t the best, but I’m competitive. It’s who I am.”

Deldicque ran for Manlius Pebble Hill School, a small independent school in Syracuse, NY. The school had fewer than 400 students, and the cross country team had fewer than 10 runners. He competed at the varsity level as a seventh grader, and was consistently the team’s first finisher in eighth grade.

Even as a young athlete, Deldicque envisioned competing with the best in college. “I told my coach I wanted to break 16 minutes in the 5k, and that would get me to Division I.”

Then his family moved to Spain.

Deldicque began his ninth grade year at Benjamin Franklin International School, an American school in Barcelona. The school didn’t have traditional sports teams, so Deldicque joined a track club. “My dad helped me find the club that was the closest to our house,” he said.

At age 15, Deldicque was the youngest athlete in Barcelona’s Club Esportiu Universitari, training with runners in their 20s and older. Despite the age difference between him and his teammates, Deldicque felt a sense of community in the club. “They easily could’ve just ignored me, because they were already friends and I was just this little kid,” he said. “But they were so nice to me, and they helped me so much.”

Performance wasn’t his primary concern at first. Instead, he focused on enjoying his training while adjusting to living in a new country. “The first year, everything was changing,” he said. “I was more focused on the day-to-day, getting through school, making friends, learning the language.”

The club’s approach was more laissez-faire than most American high schools. Whereas most American runners preparing to compete in college ran upwards of 40 or 50 miles a week, Deldicque rarely got above 30. “My longest run in the week was 45 minutes,” he said.

After becoming accustomed to his new home, he began to focus more on his performance. As a junior he improved his time in the 5,000 meters by almost 40 seconds, from 16:23 to 15:44. In his primary event, the 1,500 meters, he improved his personal best from 4:09 to 4:01.

Just before these breakthroughs, Deldicque began the college search. But the recruiting process was foreign to him — he’d never heard of an official visit and didn’t understand the structure of college conferences in the U.S. He only reached out to a few colleges, including American.

Over Zoom from Washington, D.C., to Spain, cross country head coach Sean Graham saw something in Deldicque. “He and I clicked pretty quick — in terms of personality, motivation, and the type of guy I potentially wanted on my team.”

Something clicked for Deldicque, too. When he committed to American, just a couple weeks after his official visit, an important factor for him was coach Graham.

For Graham, it’s rewarding to coach an athlete with Deldicque’s ambition. “I think that I challenge him in a way that he hasn’t been before, and I think he challenges me in a way that I haven’t had in a while,” he said. “I think it’s something that you find in any high-performing athlete. But finding a relationship with an athlete and coach where each party is excited about that is pretty cool.”

Deldicque capped off his high school career with a new personal best of 3:53.18 in the 1,500 meters, and appearances at the indoor and outdoor Spanish U20 Championships in the event. He couldn’t compete in the finals, as he wasn’t a Spanish citizen, but racing at that level prepared him to transition into Division I competition. He came into college with a chip on his shoulder, but was unable to brush it off due to sickness cutting his freshman cross country season short.

“I was angry,” he said. “I didn’t feel like I was able to show them the version of me that I wanted to be.”

It was three months before Deldicque raced again, but he was running slower than he had in high school. Over the next two months, he prioritized his training, sleep, and recovery to regain full fitness — and it paid off. He was Patriot League Rookie of the Week in February after a personal best time of 1:52.63 in the 800 meters, the sixth fastest in American’s history. In the coming months, he would add his name to AU’s top 10 list in the outdoor 800 and contribute to multiple scoring relays for the Eagles.

“I chose AU, but in a way AU also chose me,” he said. “Graham believed in me. I was very glad to have the opportunity to show him that the time he spent getting me back to health was all worth it, and that we were going to achieve great things together and as a team.”

For Deldicque, a combination of taking the sport seriously and enjoying it has allowed him to bounce back from adversity and achieve success. Having come from a club in high school that some joined just for fun, he brought a spirited attitude to the American program.

Deldicque doesn’t necessarily see himself as a leader. But his constant drive to be better and dedication to the sport set a strong example for his teammates, Graham said. “He’s starting to see it. Guys are looking up to him.”

Deldicque has started the fall season as a top-five performer for American with consecutive personal bests in the 6,000 meters and 8,000 meters. At the Lafayette Invite on September 6, he contributed to the 1-2-3 sweep that helped the men’s program team record a win over four other Patriot League teams on this year’s conference course. At the ECU Pirate Invitational last Friday, he ran a personal-best 24:40.4 in the 8k as the men placed third against top competition.

Looking ahead, Deldicque hopes to help the Eagles reach the podium at the Patriot League Championships on November 2, and on the track he aims to qualify for the first round of the NCAA Championships next May.

“His confidence is building. His fitness is very high,” Graham said. “He’s going to be really good.”