By Amrit Brown//
A member of the Hood College track team broke two school records at a meet on Jan. 21 and another at a meet on Jan. 27.
The first-year runner, Chris Sappe, broke the school records in the 3,000-meter run (9:16.32) and the mile run (4:26.50) at Virginia Wesleyan University’s Blue Marlin Invitational on Jan. 21. Less than a week later, Sappe broke the record in the 600-meter run (1:24.48) at the Mini-Dip Invitational on Jan. 27 hosted by Franklin and Marshall College.
This has been in the cards for Sappe for a while who set his sights on the Hood College record books after coming up short during the cross-country season. “It definitely felt good considering I got so close,” Sappe said about his records.
The Hood College track coach, Mike Petro, said he has a strong belief in Sappe and said that Sappe could be an individual national qualifier during his time at Hood.
Sappe has not only set the bar high for himself but also for his team. “I think we do have the best team we have had in a while, if not like the best team we have ever had,” Sappe said.
Sappe has been widely successful in a variety of events at Hood and said that his training regimen from this past year was a part of that success. Petro added that Sappe’s buy-in as well as his versatility has been a huge part of his success this year.
Petro, who is in his second year at Hood also has big goals for the team. “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to win a team title,” Petro said.
Petro believes that the journey to a team title was cut down significantly by this past recruiting class including Sappe. “A lot of the team success we are going to have, he is going to play a very pivotal part in that this season,” Petro said.
Sappe has had success on the track since high school where he was a multiple-time conference champion, all-county and all-region athlete and national track qualifier. He also was awarded region champion, team MVP, and Frederick News Post Track Athlete of the Month.
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