The Youngstown State men’s cross country team poses with their Horizon League trophy at Green Bay. Hunter Christopher (Salem, second to the left from center, won his second straight individual title.

As much success that the Youngstown State track and field program has brewed in recent history, the men’s cross country team is setting up a bit of a dynasty of their own in the Horizon League.

Last weekend in Green Bay, Wisconsin, the Penguins tallied 26 points with five runners in the top eight spots to earn their third consecutive conference title, their eighth overall as a program. It’s also the second time YSU has won three consecutive men’s cross-country titles, having accomplished the feat from 1994-96 in the former Mid-Continent Conference.

Hunter Christopher, a Salem graduate, took home his second consecutive individual title as well, clocking a time of 24:11.12.

Brian Gorby has been at the helm of cross country programs since August 1993, but he feels this current group is about as dominant as one could be.

“To do it with these guys, it’s a special feeling. This really is a special group, it’s one from our perspective that’ll go down as one of the most enjoyable championships and dominating,” Gorby said. “Credit goes to Hunter Christopher, he’s so good, to come back and win two in a row is just a credit to him. I know his heart is a Penguin. He gave us a big hug before the race, and a big rugged hug after the race. You just don’t do that very often. Sometimes people run fast so you can grab a high five, but this group is hugs.

“It’s a little more special because this is family and you spend every day together.”

Ryan Meadows (fourth, 24:31.5), Tobias Jones (sixth, 24:34.9), Blaze Fichter (seventh, 24:38.2), and Thomas Caputo (eighth, 24:39.8) also scored for the Penguins. A local graduate, Beau Gorby (Boardman) earned 33rd at 25:36 flat.

Christopher, a COVID senior, knew this trek to Wisconsin was going to be one final opportunity to bring some Horizon League hardware back to the Mahoning Valley. It’s been a long journey this fall, one that’s taken the team to meets at Minnesota, Notre Dame and College Station, Texas, but the race for the conference crown was a group effort.

“It was a long travel trip so that allowed us to focus on winning our third title, things really clicked for us. We were on the same page, which is hard to do with six or seven guys. Things went well for us that day,” Christopher said. “What I’ve really found peace in this year is just the difference in the courses, pulling away from the times and just really competing. That’s a valuable objective and a principle that I really like about cross country, just competing and beating people. The difference course allows me to focus on that instead of just chasing a time.

“We’ve created such a culture that the expectation is that if we come home in any place other than first, it’s a disappointment. It’s very rewarding, but there’s also a lot more that can go wrong than right. When I crossed the finish line, I’d say the first feeling was more relief that I was able to win again, then it changed to joy.”

Christopher didn’t even sniff the lead until the final 2,000 kilometers, pacing behind Meadows who led the group for a better part of the race.

Eric Rupe, the men’s cross country coach, saw a group that executed a game plan after posting speedy times throughout the season.

“When you get really good at anything in life you start making it look easy, but it’s anything but easy. These guys make it look easy, but it goes back to all of the hard work, they’ve been training and going at this now for four or five years in college,” Rupe said. “It’s something that we’ve worked on, running as a pack kind of makes sense, but it’s hard to do. It’s a little easier at the conference meet because you don’t have as many people, but when have a meet where there’s hundreds of people it’s kind of hard to find each other in the middle of it.

“It’s something we really stress in practice. If you come to a workout, these guys are always running next to each other. It’s something we’re continually working on, and it makes racing easier. Our goal is to control the race from the get go, which is now a way that we’re accustomed to running. We used to kind of lay back, last year we won the race in the last 2K by being able to outkick, this year was the complete opposite. We got out in that first mile, at one point we had six guys in the top seven. It’s really kudos to them to embrace that new style of racing, which is really hard to do when we’ve had three or four years of racing a certain way.”

Christopher added, “I was so proud to see my teammates come through, because I couldn’t have done it without them because they executed. I couldn’t have won that without them, Ryan leading most of the race, Caputo was ahead of me, Toby and Blaze and Owen, I wouldn’t have won individually without those guys.”

On the women’s side, the Penguins finished fourth with 98 points, McKinley Fielding earning individual runner-up honors with a time of 21:09.9. Caleigh Richards took eighth at 21:46.03; the Maplewood graduate also earned the Horizon League Freshman of the Year honors from her efforts throughout the fall campaign.

Other local runners competing on the women’s side included Salem graduates Molly Hopple (48th, 23:44.4) and Megan Stafford (53rd, 23:52.6), alongside Howland’s Molly Yasnowski (75th, 24:10.4).

For Richards, the transition from the high school to the Division I college level was eye-opening, but an experience that she used to build from.

“It’s been a really exciting season overall. Having teammates to train with has helped me so much, to push me in workouts to help me get to where I’m at and accomplish what I did in races, the races leading up to conference gave me some confidence and motivation,” Richards said.

“I knew if I ran a good race I could be up there. Just at conference, I knew I had to go out there and just run my race. Knowing that there’s always going to be girls around me, whereas in high school there were a lot of races where I’d be by myself and had to push myself, so that change of having people constantly around you to run with. But honestly, it’s a change that I’ve really enjoyed because I think that helps you get faster times. Having people to push you is really nice. I’m so grateful to be able to experience something like (the Freshman of the Year award) so early. I didn’t know what to expect going into college, but it’s been a super cool experience, seeing the training pay off and it all come together is really cool. I’m just really blessed, it’s been really fun.”

Next Friday, the Penguins will be back in action at the Silver Creek Cross Country Course in Norton for the Great Lakes regional. Richards was among those that competed at the same course back in late fall at the Tommy Evans Invitational, so having some background knowledge of the challenges ahead is helpful, especially going up against a slew of Power Four schools.

“I think it was definitely a benefit to see that early on. We know what to expect now, there’s not going to be any surprises, so just having that in the back of our minds, that yes, this is going to be tough, this is the areas we need to work on and push through is going to be a huge benefit.” Richards said.

Christopher didn’t compete at that aforementioned event earlier in the season, but he hopes that having a fresh perspective and being a little closer to home will help bring that little extra juice.

“I’m so excited to see some of my old teammates and friends. This is the first meet that my family is going to just because we travel so much,” Christopher said. “I’m just excited to see the support we’re going to have, and I need to learn from last year. I’m more mature than last year. You can’t really learn unless you fail. No one learns when they succeed and do well, so I’m hoping I’ll apply what I learned last year and I need to be in a better spot than I was last year to do well. I’m excited to get another crack at it.”