By Brandon Kim, Sports Editor
The running force of River Hill cross country has taken a hit with the graduation of talented seniors, Terry Tossman and Marshall Demaree. However, senior, Chris Heydrick is looking to make his mark as an upperclassman leader.
A first-team all-county member for the 2013-2014 season, Heydrick is returning strong in the 5-kilometer run, after setting a school record for the 3-mile his junior year.
Heydrick’s success both on the track and the course can be attributed to his tremendous work ethic. Putting in around 50 miles of running a week, Chris said his summer routine consisted of “a lot of long runs with very little faster pace stuff.”
Looking for his hard work to pay off, Heydrick has set lofty goals for the upcoming year, and ones he firmly believes he can achieve, given the work he has put in. “My goals for cross country are to win the county, region, and state title.” And while his personal goals are important to him, he also strives “to win a state title as a team.”
Trying to be an individual leader on the course, Heydrick mentions fellow captains Mark Moody and Sam Trossman as major contributors to the cross country group as a whole. “These guys do a great job in getting people pumped up to race and just being great supporters of the younger kids and team as a whole.”
While being a prominent leader in cross country, the record books for both indoor and outdoor track are filled with Heydrick’s name. In indoor track, Chris has set records in the 800-meter, 1600-meter and mile events, along with a blistering mile time of 4:23.05.
Despite being the school record holder for these events, Heydrick aspires to beat his own times, times that were fast enough to earn him four state titles last year. “my big goals are to run under 4:10 in the mile, and under 1:53 in the 800 meter.”
Chris is not the only runner in his family. Older brother and River Hill alumni, Scott Heydrick, made his own mark at River Hill. With a school record in the outdoor 1500 meter event, the person in second is none other than the younger Chris, mere seconds apart.
Coming off a year in which he was crowned with four individual state titles, and won an additional one for the outdoor 4×800 relay event, along with teammates Liam Pedersen, Mark Moody, and Mitchell Howland, Chris hopes to again win another five state titles in both indoor and outdoor track, all while surpassing the incredible bar that he himself set.