Sunday, December 23, 2012
The Boardman cross country program had a banner year in 2012. The Spartans won their first Federal League title and their 10th consecutive Mahoning County championship.
Junior Mark Hadley has been at the forefront of the pack for his team, for this area and for this state. He placed sixth at the Ohio state meet with a time of 15:29.11, a two second improvement from 2011.
“You feel like you’re in the big time at state,” he said. “You get to see everybody that you heard about all year and you’re running next to them.”
Basketball was Hadley’s first love and he would just run on the side.
Freshman year, he qualified for a mile meet in North Carolina. This year, he took part in the Foot Locker regional championships in Wisconsin.
Hadley has many upcoming goals, which include the national championship in San Diego.
“I also want to break the track record in the mile which is 4:14,” he said. “I also want to break nine minutes in the two-mile”
His mother was a standout at Jackson-Milton before she gained national attention at Walsh. His brother, Nathan, is a freshman runner at Boardman.
Hadley runs up to 60 miles each week in winter.
He is getting attention from Big Ten schools and he wants to be a physical therapist.