He won the individual Heptagonal cross country championship in 1970, following a fifth-place finish as a junior. He set Cornell records in the indoor and outdoor two-mile run and in the 3,000 steeplechase. He placed third in the six-mile run at both the outdoor IC4As and the NCAA championships to earn All-America honors in 1970. Runner-up in the Heptagonal indoor two-mile as a junior and senior in the outdoor two-mile in 1969, he made the 1972 U.S. Olympic team in the 10,000 meters, but did not qualify for the final in Munich. In 1973, he won the Boston Marathon in a time of 2:16.3, to become only the fourth American to win the Marathon since World War II.
