"Running culture" revives HS cross country program

The all-terrain running of cross country isn’t for everybody. It requires a certain degree of commitment and understanding to navigate courses such as the ones on the Highland Park High Schoolcross country team’s schedule. As fall rolled in and renovations around the borough finished up, the Owls had a chance to use Donaldson Park and the old Raritan Valley Roadrunners course for the first time in five years. This served as a degree of motivation for HPHS head coach Eric Davis.

“We had been a part of all-road meets for the past couple years,” Davis said. “So, obviously that takes a toll and it was nice to get back on a course they were familiar with and start working on it regularly.”

The sport of cross country is a different animal than the spring track and field events that most are used to seeing in the mainstream. A shift in skill set is necessary to make the transition from one form of running to the other.

“The course is not just about running on the track or in a circle,” Davis said. “It has different terrains—grass, road, hills—so you need runners to make adjustments to the surfaces. Some run hills better than others and you can specialize on a terrain, so that technical aspect makes cross country different than track.”

The HPHS boys team picked up a pair of wins in seven meets, while the girls squad was unable to get a victory in five attempts. However, Davis took plenty of positives out of his group’s accomplishments this season.

“I think the real measure of success here is that we fielded a girls team with five runners after not having one last year,” Davis said. “Also, three of our first-time runners have a pedigree of running in their families so that always helps in coaching.”

The aforementioned five runners that helped revive the HPHS girls cross country program are sophomore Analine Ojeda, juniors Stefanie Perez and Jackie Watters and seniors Kathy Evans and Isabel Reyes. Ojeda was the team’s top performer in ’09, while Perez and Watters are third-year runners.

“The girls really surprised me,” Davis said. “A couple of them ran for the first time and did well so that’s a plus moving forward.”

On the boys side, the Owls are led by junior co-captains Jack Yang and Zach Chen. At his ’09 best, Yang ran an 18:55 on the HP home course.

While Yang, Evans, Reyes and Ojeda ran track last year, they brought their talents to the cross country team for the first time this fall.

Even with a squad that has some experience but is limited by numbers, Davis finds ways to measure improvement on a day-by-day basis.

“You look to individual progress and point out that they are a team and you want them to run with each other in practice and push themselves to run individually and get better,” Davis said. “It’s the quality, not the quantity in cross country and that showed through in our couple of wins. The second win was with five runners, missing our No. 2 and No. 3.”

As a 1986 graduate of HPHS himself, Davis said it’s “rewarding” to be a part of Owls athletics again—this time trying to establish an up-and-coming program.

“Highland Park has such a rich running history both in the school and in the community,” Davis said. “It has a running culture for sure. While we’ve had better numbers in the past, it’s good to come back and work hard to pass on a love of running.”