Boys cross country seniors finish career as 11th in the state
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November 16, 2009
Jules Libertin
There is a time to let things happen and there is a time to make things happen, that time is now.” This quote sums up the boys cross country season. Since their freshman year when former head coach Tim McGrath told them they could do anything if they put their minds to it, the senior class of Jake Frego, Ryan Spear, Jason Green, Jake Craine and Chris Alto wanted nothing less than to make it to the state cross country meet. After three long seasons of not making it out of districts, the team finally accomplished the dream this season.
“It is the best ending possible. We put so much time, effort, and work into accomplishing it. I can not put into words how it feels,” senior team captain Ryan Spear said.
Even though their goal started way back in their freshman year, the mission truly did not start until last year when the team did not make it out of districts for the third time in a row.
“Ever since the team did not make it out as a whole last season I have seen a difference in all their work efforts. They are a great group of guys, who have worked so hard this past year,” head coach Andrea Hoffman said.
While the majority of teams train only during the season and pre-season, the Hoban cross country team has trained all year. In the winter, some of runners ran and weightlifted daily to get the extra edge. They would run between 20-30 miles a week in the freezing weather outside.
In the spring, all of runners ran track. Coach Hoffman made intense workouts increasing the boys mileage to around 44 miles a week. The difficult workouts helped prepare them physically for the upcoming season in cross country. Once the track season was over, the boys took only two weeks off before starting pre-season conditioning. Their summer was filled with running, running and more running. They ran between 50-55 miles a week while weightlifting.
“I did not want to end my senior year at districts and I wanted to get to states. The workload has been hard, especially in the summer. It has all paid off ,” senior runner Chris Alto said.
When the season began, the boys knew it was time to make their name known and feared across the state. They accomplished this by upsetting rival St.Vincent-St. Mary, placed an outstanding eighth place at the tough All-Catholic Invitational, placed fourth overall at the North Coast League meet and on top of that everyone kept improving their times throughout the season. Through all their season accomplishments, the Knights entered the State tournament ranked 14th in Ohio.
This season has been very exciting, especially for the seniors. All the seniors knew what we wanted to do, and we wanted to do it together. What we did this season proved how hard we worked,” senior Jake Frego said.
When the state tournament district meet arrived the team was mentally and physically prepared to tear up the course. They placed an impressive second place, advancing to the regional meet.
“We wanted to get to states and getting second at the district meet showed us that we could do it,” Spear said.
The Knights raced the following weekend at Boardman’s regional meet. They placed fourth– advancing them to the state meet. They finally accomplished their long awaited goal.
“It was the best feeling in the world. I kept saying ‘We did it!’ I knew I was a state champion no matter what happened at the meet,” senior Jason Green said.
With excitement and confidence the team packed their bags for the state meet and headed down to Columbus. They all could hardly hold in their excitment.
“The night before, all I wanted to do was just run. I was so thrilled we made it the state meet,” senior Jake Craine said.
Finally, the moment came. The boys headed to the state cross country meet course, Scioto Downs, in the morning. As they walked into the stadium, they were welcomed by over ten thousand fans – equal to the amount of spectators at the Mum Day football game.
“I saw all the teams, banners and fans. It was intimidating, but exciting. I cannot describe how amazing it was to see,” Frego said. “I wanted to go out and run the best I could. I knew it was our last race.”
The race was at a blistering fast pace, but that did not affect the team. They finished in 11th place. Leading the team was senior Jason Green who finished 47th out of the 146 top runners in Ohio. He was followed by Jake Frego (75th), Chris Alto (88th), Jake Craine (90th), Max Moore (113th), Ryan Spear (116th) and Max Straus (125th).
“It has been 33 years since a Hoban cross country team has gone to states. We were ranked 11th and got 11th which is great. I could not be a prouder coach,” Hoffman said. “i am so honored to have coached them.”
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