ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Blake Kasper has experienced tremendous growth as a student, athlete and person during his time at Roberts Wesleyan University.
Kasper, a senior from Orchard Park, N.Y., has been a member of five East Coast Conference championship teams in track and field and cross country and won individual championships in the 5,000-meter run indoors and the 10,000-meter run outdoors. He was also named the 2022 ECC Cross Country Runner of the Year after finishing first at the conference championships.
This fall in cross country, his favorite sport, Kasper finished third in the ECC Championships as Roberts won its ninth straight championship and established a personal record by more than a minute while taking fourth place at the NCAA East Regional as the Redhawks finished second. He will run his last college cross country race at the NCAA Division II National Championships on Nov. 18 in Joplin, Mo.
Kasper has also grown in his faith and excels in the classroom. Kasper, a Nursing major, carries a 3.86 grade-point average and was recently named the Roberts Wesleyan University Male Scholar Athlete of the Month for October. He also received the honor in February of 2022.
A triplet, Blake and his brothers, Andrew (Waynesburg) and Caleb (Houghton), are all senior standouts for their college's running programs. Kasper hopes to work as a pediatric nurse after graduating in May.
Kasper took a few moments to discuss being a student-athlete at Roberts. The interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
When you look back at your time at Roberts, what are you most proud of?
"I think that I am really proud of how our team atmosphere has shifted and the way that our team has grown. I am not the only person that is experiencing a lot of success in this program, which is a really cool thing and is something that I am really proud. I hope other people can see that and want  to be a part of that because I have really enjoyed being a part of that for the last four years."
What does it mean to be a part of and helping to establish the tradition that is at Roberts right now?
"It's really neat to be able to carry that on. Every year it's like, 'what is going to happen next year?' and you graduate a couple of guys who are really solid runners. You wonder what the future of the program is going to be like but people always step up in really big ways. It's been really cool to be a part of that legacy, from being one of those guys that wasn't in the top group of guys when I came in … and to be able to come in and follow my training plan to get where I am now has been really cool. It has been really neat to see the growth that I have experienced and now I am seeing other guys do the same thing."
Where have you grown the most as a runner?
"A lot of it is in the training and in the mindset. In high school I really wasn't doing much in the off-season and my own time was really just a break for me, but since I got to college off-season has been a time of working just as hard and being consistent with my training and doing more. A lot of it has been a change in mindset and work ethic."
Do you train much with your triplet brothers in the off-season?
"We have individual training plans, but stuff will overlap sometimes. We will have easy runs, so we will run a lot together in the off-season. I spend a lot of the summer miles with them, which is nice."
Do you have a favorite course or professor during your time at Roberts?
"I really like a lot of the courses that I am in, I enjoy them and I think that they are interesting. I have enjoyed all of the clinical experiences that I have had and the instructors that I have had. I will say that one of my favorite classes was also  one of the hardest classes that I have taken. It was Anatomy and Physiology with Dr. LaCelle and it was one of the first classes that I actually took here. That was a really interesting course - I love Dr. LaCelle, he's an awesome professor and he's a really smart guy - and his class taught me a lot of stuff and it's a very useful class that keeps coming up over and over and over again in all of these classes that I am taking. His class was very foundational for me and I really enjoyed it and found it very interesting."
What advice would you give to any incoming student-athletes at Roberts?
"My advice is always to trust the process and pursue excellence in everything that you are doing. It's weird that I can be like an old man now and look back at a four-year career and say this stuff now, but time flies by really fast and have fun while you are doing all of that stuff. I love my team, I love my program that I am in and everything is wrapping up very nicely and I am very grateful for everything. Don't take the little moments for granted and enjoy every moment for what it is."