By: Joel Neuschwander

In his 39 years of coaching cross country, Al Fricke has never seen anything like this.

The Hershey boys cross country team wasn’t supposed to be this good after losing five of their best runners from a year ago to graduation. Yet, the Trojans finished the 2015 season with a remarkable 6-1 record. This includes a 6th place finish out of 42 teams at the Paul Short Invitational and a 2nd place finish at the Kutztown Invitational.

Coach Fricke attributes the team’s success this past season to their work ethic and dedication, saying “These guys have worked hard, they’re fun to be with, and they’ve dedicated themselves to being better.”

Assistant coach Mike Gustantino agrees with Fricke, saying the team “put in a lot of summer miles” to overcome a lack of experience. Gustantino also says as the season went along, the coaches worked more individually with the varsity runners, forming a close bond within the team.

The team continued a tradition by helping out at the 24th annual Ben and Tim Day 5K, which is always a favorite for Fricke. He has been helping since the beginning and has enjoyed seeing it become part of the community.

Among the leaders for the squad over the course of the season, Grant Geyer was pleased with his performance during the last month and a half. Geyer bested his personal record for 3.1 miles from last year by 16 seconds, and is currently at a 16:32.

After losing the aforementioned five varsity runners to graduation, Geyer was thrilled with the way many people on the team stepped up to fill the gaps. He said “We’ve also formed a close bond amongst ourselves, which was definitely something our seniors had last year.”

All of this considered, Geyer is looking forward to the Mid Penn Championship Race on October 17th and the District race on October 31st. He said “Ideally we’ll have our best performance at districts and qualify for states.”

To prepare for districts, Geyer and the rest of the team will be doing more shorter runs and workouts on the track, as opposed to the longer runs in the regular season. As districts approach, the team will be lightening up a bit. Geyer said, “Closer to the race we’ll begin to do lighter workouts so our bodies can be fully rested and prepared for districts.”

As the door closes on a memorable regular season for HXC, Fricke, Gustantino, Geyer, and the team are ready for the next step.

Gustantino said, “Hopefully it’s yet to come.”