TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — His training has doubled. His performance seems to have matched it.

Mars graduate Zach Leachman, a red-shirt sophomore at Florida State University, has become one of the top distance runners for the Seminoles in track and field as well as cross country. And he’s worked hard to get to that point.

“I’m running almost double the miles I ran in high school,” Leachman said of his training. “The workouts are much more intense. The most miles I’d run during a high school workout was five or six.

“Here, we’re running eight or nine, easily. And the competition is fierce.”

That goes for his own team as well as the opposition.

Leachman placed fifth out of 146 runners at the cross country season-opening Covered Bridge Open, hosted by Appalachian State. He completed the course in 25 minutes, 23.6 seconds, less than a minute behind the meet champion.

That champion was Florida State senior Ferghal Curtin, who won the event in 24:52.3.

“Even with his endurance, the step-up in training at this level takes a while for young kids in our program to adjust to,” Seminoles cross country coach Robert Braman said. “It generally takes a year or two for it to teally kick in for them.

“You could see the difference in Zach last spring. He had a great season. He’s got that tiger eye. He trains like a wild man. Now he’s seeing it pay off.”

Leachman wants to improve for his team as much as for himself.

“We wound up 20th in the nation last year in cross country, fourth in the ACC,” he said. “We’re hoping to improve on that finish this year. The runners are here to do that.

“We’ve got a deep group and everybody pushes each other.”

The Seminoles run against Tennessee this Friday for their second meet of the season.

Leachman has stayed busy with his legs since last spring. As a red-shirt freshman on the track team, he ran a personal-best 29:23 in the 10,000 meters, nearly a 90-second improvement over his previous best time. His 5,000-meter time of 14:14 was a personal-best as well.

“We have a couple of elite runners in our program and Zach is right on their shoulders every day in practice,” Braman said.

Florida State’s track and field team won the ACC championship last spring.

“It was nice being a part of that,” Leachman said. “All I want to do is keep improving, keep getting better each season. I don’t set goals in terms of times. I’d love to make All-American before I’m done here. That’s something to shoot for.”

“That could happen for him,” Braman said of Leachman’s All-American aspirations. “All we want our cross country and track athletes to do is improve season to season, year to year, and he’s doing that.

“We can’t control how good athletes on opposing teams are. But if Zach keeps improving ... yeah, All-American is within his reach.”

Even with his success from last spring, Leachman wasn’t done running. He returned to Pennsylvania and began cross training in preparation of his first triathlon in two years. He was one of the United States representatives for the Americas Cup Triathlon in Long Beach, Calif.

“Training for that triathlon was definitely challenging,” he said. “I had to mix that in with my cross country training in getting ready for the fall. I knew I had to be ready to go when I got back to school. Our team is built on dedicated athletes.”

And Leachman did just fine in that triathlon. He placed 15th overall and was sixth among United States competitors. He then closed out the event with with a 5K run time of 14 minutes, 51 seconds — second fastest among all racers.

The triathlon was Leachman’s first as a Collegiate Elite/Pro.

“I was happy with how I did, but how many more triathlons I do remains to be seen,” he said. “We’re into cross country, them track season now. That has to come first.”

Braman had no issue with Leachman doing a triathlon during the summer.

“We know he has interest in triathlons and he’s pretty good at it,” the coach said. “He may get more involved in running triathlons as his post-collegiate sport. For now, it’s a nice diversion from his regular training and the grind of just running.

“He could do another one in the winter if he wants. We have no problem with it.”