When Mike Rutt was growing up in a small Pennsylvania town near Reading, people would tell him he was destined to become a runner. He ran track in high school, but his real goal was to continue playing soccer. He earned letters in both sports.

“Growing up, I just wanted to be a soccer player,” says Rutt. But he changed his mind after a visit to UConn, and turned down a scholarship to play soccer at Pittsburgh.

“This is the only place I looked at seriously for track. I came on a visit here, and when I was done I said I want to go to school here,” says Rutt, a senior exercise science major. “I came here more for the school than the sport.”

Greg Roy, head men’s track and field coach for the Huskies, says he thought Rutt had potential, but that it might be difficult for him to make it here. “I told him that,” Roy says. “He believed in himself, and thought he had greater potential as a track and field athlete than as a soccer player, and he wanted to give it a chance.”

Both coach and runner have been pleased by the decision. Rutt has developed into one of the Huskies’ best middle distance runners, and one of the top track and field athletes in the nation, earning All-America honors and finishing a very close second in the 800 meters at the NCAA Indoor Championship in March.

As a co-captain for the second consecutive year, Rutt is one of the leaders of a Huskies men’s track and field squad that this year has won the Big East Indoor Championship and the New England Championship. The Huskies also completed a sweep of the Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes of America (IC4A) Championship in cross country, outdoor track and field, and indoor track and field.

Last weekend, the Huskies won the 2011 Big East Outdoor Championships in Philadelphia, with 17 top-five marks, including two top finishes in four events. UConn won the 4×100 meters relay with Kashif Moore, Kevin Smith, Darnell Cummings, and Jesse Drinks; Tyrone Faverey won the triple jump; Aaron King, who was named the 2011 Big East Outstanding Field Performer, won the decathlon and was second in the triple jump; and Cody Unger won the javelin. Rutt had a season-best of 1:48.57 in the 800 meters, but finished second.

Roy says one of the challenges of coaching track and field is building a team atmosphere among a diverse group of student-athletes who essentially compete as individuals. It requires balance among the coaches as well.

“It’s a matter of creating a team environment in an individual sport,” says Roy, now in his 21st year at UConn. “I’ve coached every event in track and field. [The coaches] are comfortable with each other and watch each other’s athletes.”

Roy works primarily with the runners. Associate head coach Ted Gibbons is in his 18th season with the Huskies and specializes in field events. Rich Miller, who earned All-New England and Big East honors in pentathlon and pole vault events while competing as a Husky, is in his fifth year as a full-time assistant coach after a decade as a part-time coach, and works with multi-event athletes.

Roy, who has produced 31 All-Americans from UConn, says that Rutt has grown each year as a runner at UConn and has gained confidence.

“There was a realization born from his freshman Big East Championship and a confidence that grew from there,” he says. “When Mike talks about a national championship, he’s not talking about somebody else, it’s about hm. In the NCAAs last month, he finished second by the narrowest of margins, a whisker – four-hundredths of a second in an 800 meter race.”

Rutt says he thinks he can continue to improve his performance. “I still consider myself somewhat new to the sport, because I wasn’t so serious about in high school,” he says. “I was more of a soccer player, and did track too. I’ve made a huge improvement, but I know there’s room for much more because I’ve only been doing it seriously for five, maybe six years.”

Rutt, a Big East All-Academic Team selection, says that his studies in exercise science have helped not only toward his career goal in the field of physical therapy, but on the track as well.

“It’s been cool to see stuff I learn in the class applied here and having it work,” he says, noting that he might be able to provide insight to his teammates on the scientific benefits of their practice drills. “Sometimes I try to explain to guys why we’re doing one work out compared to another, whether it’s for lactic acid or aerobic base, sprinting speed, and why Coach Roy is having us do it. It is a science.”

Roy says it is rare to have a team captain for two years with Rutt’s skills and leadership abilities.

“Two-year captains are few and far between,” he says. “Mike’s a tremendous leader. He’s total commitment, toughness, and do it for the team. He’s not a screamer or a yeller. He’s a quiet leader.”

Rutt says he’ll offer advice when needed, but he mostly leads by example. “I like to talk strategies with other people,” he says. “It’s nice to talk back and forth, and talk to the younger guys when they come in. A lot of times they’ll ask how you run this or that. It’s kind of cool to teach and learn, because everyone has their own opinion on what the perfect race is. I’m not a big vocal leader. If anyone needs advice, I’ll give them advice. If I need to give the team a pep talk, I’ll do it. I’d say I lead by example more than anything else.”

With his great success on the track, Rutt says it appears he may have the opportunity to extend his athletic career beyond UConn, but as an exercise science major, he knows there is a limit to every athlete’s ability to perform.

“The main goal down the road is physical therapy,” he says. “I love exercise science, learning about the body and what it does. I’ll try to extend this, but your body can’t go forever, it’s a fact of life.”

The Huskies head to the New England Championships this Thursday in New Haven, followed immediately by the IC4A Championship in Princeton, N.J. over the weekend.