Senior Zachary Haley has made it to state for cross country not once, but twice. As a senior, he is put his all into this season to achieve his goals. Haley had been preparing every day in preparation for running in the state meet. It is no doubt that he has been a star on the cross-country team throughout his whole high school career. 

This isn’t Haley’s first time at state. He also went to state his junior year but didn’t get the desired results. This year he worked extra hard so that he can get the desired result he wants. Just to show how much Haley was committed to this season, he only took a total of 10 days off running from the start of summer to the end of the season. This year alone Haley has run 2000 miles. 

When asked what his goal was going into the meet Haley said, “My goal going into it was to be all Ohio, but I was seeded 18th and I just wanted to finish better than that and prove them wrong.”

Haley ended up finishing higher than he was seeded in this race. Haley finished 15th out of a total of 180 runners at this meet. Not only did Zac reach his goal by finishing higher than his seeding, but finishing 15th out of almost 200 runners is a massive accomplishment. 

Haley discussed how he ran at this year’s state meet compared to last year, “I think I did way better, I obviously trained way harder, but I figured out a lot more on the mental side of racing.”

Not only has Haley been a star runner, but he is also an honor student in the classroom. He shows the same amount of dedication that he has for cross country in the classroom. 

In terms of the cross-team next year Haley had to these words, “Even though I won’t be there the team is going to be better in terms of our 1-5 spread. They will definitely make it to state and I think if they trained like they did this year they will be one of the top teams in the state.” 

Although Haley will not be on the team anymore, we can see how he has inspired the team. Having Haley on the team this year has helped exponentially. By showing the other members of the team how hard work really does pay off, maybe they will start to work harder so that they too can make it to state. Although it is very difficult to make it to states, Haley believes that if the team works hard enough throughout the off-season that they can achieve great things. 

It was not easy at all for Haley to make it this far in his cross-country career. His achievements took a lot of sacrifice and dedication. From running almost every day all summer long to running in the off-season. 

Lakeview assistant principal Michael Detoro recalls, “I driving near the school when it was still dark out in the morning and saw a flashlight on the sidewalk. I could tell it was someone running, but couldn’t tell who until I got closer. When I got closer I could tell that it was Zac when I drove past him.” This just goes to show how dedicated Zac is to this sport. He woke up early before school to go out and train so that he could go out and reach his goals.