Last week, Goshen College received national recognition thanks to the performance of Drew Hogan, a senior business major, at the Twilight Invitational hosted by Indiana Wesleyan University. 

Hogan placed first of 304 runners, setting a course record and earning the second fastest time in program history with 24:25.7, second only to Matthew Keitany last year. 

He led the team to their overall placement of fifth out of 20 schools, and the men’s cross country team is currently ranked 21st in the nation. This makes them one of five ranked schools in the Crossroads League, which includes the number three and five teams. 

At the national level, this performance earned him the title of NAIA Men’s Cross Country Runner of the Week, making him the first award winner for the year. On top of that, he was also named Crossroads League Men’s Cross Country Runner of the Week, and U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association M-F Athletic NAIA Men’s National Athlete of the Week.  

This is the first time that Goshen has ever had a national player of the week in cross country, and the first time GC has had the title since 2017. 

Hogan’s performance is also notable as he did not compete for the team last year, instead opting to redshirt for the year and take more time to train. Rustin Nyce, director of cross country, predicted that Hogan covered close to 4000 miles of work that most people will never see. 

“Day after day, when it was zero degrees or 100 degrees, when it was rainy –— it didn’t matter. [Hogan] was doing the work, so he earns everything that comes his way,” Nyce said. 

Lisa Voyles, associate head coach  of cross country, explained that mindset is a huge part of what allows a runner to succeed. “[Hogan] has the desire, he has the discipline to put everything together and accomplish what he is accomplishing — and because of this he is also a really good leader on the team,” Voyles said. 

Jacob Friesen, a junior history and secondary education major, agreed. “The first time Drew mentioned he was thinking about redshirting, the team fully believed in him and his commitment to keep improving, even if he wasn’t racing. Drew is one of the hardest-working people I know, and everyone could see the effort he put in.”

Hogan agreed that taking the year off was “a huge building block for [his] success.” The ability to go further and work harder than what would have been possible while racing, in addition to the support from coaches and teammates, helped to make a difference, he explained. 

When it comes to their outlook for the rest of the season as it continues, Hogan emphasized that the team is just trying to take it one race and one practice at a time. “Running is very difficult and a very painful thing, so we just like to have fun with it, getting better and being ourselves.”

Coach Nyce also explained that though the team is dedicated to doing their best regardless of the recognition they receive and that team culture plays a big part in the recruiting process, national awards can help to illustrate just how competitive GC can be. 

He described how this can appeal to potential recruits: “You can do the big things here. We’re a small school, but we can compete at a really high level.”

For the rest of the team, they don’t see the attention as a negative. “We don’t look at it as pressure — we just want to win every single day,” Hogan said. 

On top of their first week of performances, Duncan Kogei also earned the Crossroads League Men’s Cross Country Runner of the Week for this week, meaning that GC has now held the title for two consecutive weeks. 

This came after his 49th place finish out of 291 runners at the Auto Owners Spartan Invitational. His time of 24:58.4 makes him one of only eight GC runners to earn a sub 25 time, beating his own time from the previous week by more than 20 seconds. 

Hogan said that a big part of his own success comes from the robust support of his teammates and coaches, and he believes that their support for each other will be “a big reason why we are successful and competitive this year. We couldn’t do it without them, that’s for sure.”

Friesen echoed the idea that the team is a unit that relies on each other to succeed. “People often think of running as an individual sport, but it’s really not. We depend on each other every day in practice, and everyone gets better together. Seeing how hard Drew worked raised the standard for all of us.”