River Hill senior Chris Heydrick dominates indoor and outdoor track, where the surfaces are flat and he runs multiple races at a meet.
In truth, he's always enjoyed focusing on improving his mile time, where his personal best is 4 minutes and 18 seconds, instead of on running three miles in the grass up and down hills on a cross country course.
But, over the years, Heydrick has learned to love the challenge.
Although he had shown a natural ability in cross country since arriving in high school, it wasn't until after his sophomore year — when he realized some of the best mile-runners were also dominating cross country — that he decided to dedicate himself to preparing for the long distances.
"Freshman and sophomore year, I had a lot of success," Heydrick said. "Going into junior year, I kind of changed my mentality about things. In previous years, I thought I'll just cruise through cross country. It's not that I didn't take it seriously, my mentality just wasn't there. I was really just waiting for track season."
With a new mindset, Heydrick has dominated. He won the county and 3A East regional meets this fall, while leading the Hawks to county, regional and state meet team victories.
It's because of that success that he has been named the Columbia Flier/Howard County Times boys cross county Runner of the Year.
The difference for Heydrick was "putting in a little bit more work, a little more mileage," said River Hill coach Earl Lauer. "He did that throughout the summer and he gained the strength he needed to do 5,000 meters. He's a smart enough runner to know what he needed, and he went about accomplishing it and laying the foundation" for a great season.
With the field wide open starting his junior year, Heydrick aimed to win everything.
"It was the mentality that, these next two years are mine, it's all what I make of it. At this point, it's my race to lose," he said.
He ended up finishing in the top five at all three major postseason races, but there was still a feeling that he could do even better.
So when Heydrick shattered the River Hill course record prior to this fall in a scrimmage with eventual 4A state champion Severna Park, he had a feeling this was going to be his year. Although it didn't go down in the Hawks record books because it was a preseason race, he ran a time of 16:02, beating the old record by 15 seconds.
"It got me really excited for the season," Heydrick said. "Getting that (time) really pumped me up for the season and I knew this was going to be the year."
But even he admits that the preseason doesn't mean anything. It's the postseason races, along with some other big races, that people will remember you by.
After missing the early-season Howard County Invitational because of an injury that forced him to pull out of a race a week before, Heydrick had his sights set on Bull Run at Hereford High School.
He ran 16:08.4 and finished less than three seconds behind the winner, a huge accomplishment for Heydrick considering the hilly course. He had struggled through hills in the past, but with a great time under his belt he felt a slight improvement on that time could win the 3A race in early November.
But first was the county race at Centennial, where he would face off with a familiar foe — Wilde Lake senior David Eisenhauer.
Eisenhauer, the Columbia Flier/Howard County Times Runner of the Year last season, beat Heydrick in the 3A East regional meet and finished three spots ahead of him at the state meet last season.
And after battling it out even more in indoor and outdoor track, it developed into a friendly rivalry that pushed Heydrick to improve his times.
"That rivalry definitely developed more coming into this year because we each knew we would be each other's competition in the county," Heydrick said. "That really helped me out. If I was going into the county meet just having (teammate Mark Moody), I would not have run as fast as I did. I wouldn't have had as much motivation to really train hard and push on."
At the county meet, Heydrick put on a show. He was neck-and-neck with Eisenhauer after the first two miles, but pulled away in the third to win by 20 seconds.
Although Eisenhauer made it much closer the next week on the same course at regionals, Heydrick ran 16:11 to again win, this time by four seconds.
At the state meet, Heydrick set a personal best time on the course, but the fast start by Eisenhauer and North Harford's Nick Fransham left Heydrick behind to finish in third.
"The race got out a lot faster than at Bull Run," he said. "Coming up into the back two-mile section with all the hills, it just killed me."
But don't fault Heydrick for not caring. It took him minutes to forget he had lost because was too busy celebrating with his team.
"When I thought about the race, I wasn't sad at all," Heydrick said. "David and Nick just had phenomenal times. They were just better guys than me that day."
Heydrick led his team to dominating performances all season long. He and his teammates cruised in almost every meet they attended and earned a clean sweep of the postseason meets.
"All the hard work we put in over the past four years and all the work we put in over the season really all came together," Heydrick said, "and we put on a performance at the end."
Heydrick has committed to run track at the University of Connecticut next year. He continues to dominate the flat surfaces, but Heydrick thinks his time running long distances on the hills will help take him to the next level in track.
"I think the new mentality of 'I can do cross country, I am a long distance guy,' is just going to do wonders," Heydrick said. "In college coming up and running 8k's and 10k's ... it's good knowing that last season you did have a good cross country season and can handle the long distances."
Also named to the first team are:
Jake EdmondsonMt. Hebron, sophomore
Postseason highlights: Placed ninth at the county championship meet (17:49), sixth at the 3A East regional meet (17:15) and 12th at states (17:05.3).
David EisenhauerWilde Lake, senior
Postseason highlights: Placed second at the county championship meet (16:59), second at the 3A East regional meet (16:15) and second at states (15:42.1).
Mark MoodyRiver Hill, senior
Postseason highlights: Placed third at the county championship meet (17:19), third at the 3A East regional meet (17:06) and seventh at states (16:51.4).
Joey NavarroOakland Mills, sophomore
Postseason highlights: Placed 11th at the county championship meet (17:57), second at the 2A South regional meet (16:59) and sixth at states (16:58.8).
Trent RoseRiver Hill, junior
Postseason highlights: Placed eighth at the county championship meet (17:47), eighth at the 3A East regional meet (17:23) and 15th at states (17:09.3).
Bryce RosickyAtholton, senior
Postseason highlights: Placed fourth at the county championship meet (17:27), fourth at the 3A East regional meet (17:12) and 11th at states (17:04.5).