Alum Bryan Chac’s passion since middle school is now carrying him through college.  He now gets to run cross country and track at Truman State, where he is a Bulldog instead of a Knight. He has been engaged in these sports since middle school.

“I’m just happy that I get to continue running,” Chac said. “I feel like my life would be a lot different without it.”

He ran cross country all four years at FHN. Track and cross country have always been his main sports, ever since he was influenced to join the cross country team after his brother ran on the team all through high school. Kimberly Martin, Chac’s coach at FHN, can recall how he was very quiet freshman year but was one of the hardest workers on the team.

“Running at North helped me learn how to R.F.E.A., run fast every afternoon,” Chac said. “My training in high school really prepared me for college in a way, because it helped me build up to what I’m doing now.”

A big part of training is done off season, so Bryan spent a lot of time over the summer and during the off season training. He was really devoted to the sport and it paid off in the end by landing him a scholarship at Truman State. He had many outstanding moments, but Martin can remember his most impressive.

“At the conference meet for cross country, senior year, he was thrown down to the ground in the middle of the race by an opponent and he jumped up, ran to the front and won the conference championship,” Martin said.

In the spring, Bryan also plans on running track and field for Truman State. Track and field is a lot different than cross country. Track involves sprinting over short distances or running over long distances, while cross country is done on any kind of surface for long distances and requires endurance. Bryan is really passionate about both and plans on running them his entire life and has made many accomplishments already.

“Him being conference champion was a big goal of his, but probably his biggest [accomplishment] would be qualifying for the mile and the two mile in track [in state], it’s hard to do that.” Martin said.

Bryan has almost doubled his weekly mileage, mid 40s, since high school. He only gets one day off a week and spends it relaxing and doing homework. So far, he has started cross country and participated in three races. He placed 12th out of 24 overall runners in the first race and 6th on his team. The second race he placed 19th out of 58 and 7th on his team. The third race he placed 69th out of 146 and 7th on his team. Each race has a different number of participants, which is why his placements are spread out.

“The biggest thing for Bryan is his work ethic,” Martin said. “He would come out every day and give every workout 100 percent. His resilience too, even if he wasn’t feeling  well or had a cold, he still came out and gave it his all and would never have excuses.”