Spears again going for Gold
Holliday senior Hannah Spears may have already entered into G.O.A.T. (Greatest of All Time) status for the Eagles, but don’t tell her that.
With a trio of gold medals and numerous school records to boot, Spears still has the drive needed to go for gold this fall in cross country.
“Winning state my last year with the team would be ideal and then the individual gold medal would be like the cherry on top and make it that much better,” Spears said. “I’m trying to finish out strong and be the best I can be. We’re really hoping to have a strong team this year again. We only have two seniors so we’re trying to lead and encourage the younger girls.”
Spears owns five state medals between cross country and track, three gold, one silver and one bronze. Her first gold came her sophomore year when she helped Holliday claim the team cross country title. Her second and third gold came last year in 1600 and 3200 at the state track meet. She shared silver with her XC teammates last season while the bronze came her freshman year at the state track meet.
Despite all the awards and accolades, Spears admits it took a lot of hard work and improvement from a less-than-stellar junior high career.
“I came from private school and then went to public school for a year,” Spears said on her junior high struggles. “At both we didn’t really have dedicated coaches or a super strong team. Coming to Holliday my freshman year, I really wanted to be in the top seven to make varsity. I kept up the work ethic and kept working hard. I’m a people-pleaser so it works out in my favor. I want to do well at meets to make other people happy. I want to feel like I did my best. Coach Griffin is an amazing coach and knew how to make us better and keep us working hard. My mom also runs so I was running with her. Both of them kept encouraging me to keep getting better and not being satisfied with being No. 7 on the team.”
Due to those early struggles in her career, she wants to go down as someone that persevered to achieve her goals.
“I want to be remembered as someone who worked hard for (the school record) and wasn’t just given something,” Spears explained. “I want to be remembered as the girl that went from not being very good to having the school records just by working hard. I want to be a good teammate and be remembered as being encouraging to everyone.”
A typical day as a cross country runner for the Eagles is not an easy one. Practice starts at 6 a.m. every day with lots of running before getting ready for the school day ahead. As you can expect, Spears and the Eagles wrack up lots of mileage each and every day. Spears says she puts in at least four or five miles every day.
Spears has a strict regiment in place with hopes of winning a double gold this fall in both the team and individual ranks at state cross country meet.
“I got my mileage up a lot this summer,” Spears said. “I’ve been working hard and giving it my all so I know if it doesn’t work out, I know I worked as hard as I possibly could. It’s difficult to time because we’re trying to time my peak for the state cross country meet. Coach Griffin did a really good job training me last year of having my peak right after the state meet at the meet of champions. I’m trying to hit my peak right at state this year. I want to do well at state and place top three or hopefully win it. Whatever happens will happen. I’m going to try my hardest to get into the top three and get some good times in.”
Earlier this summer, Spears raced at the Meet of Champions in San Antonio against larger classifications and faster runners. She re-set the school record in the mile, posting a time of 4:57. She credits having faster opposition to helping her achieve the sub-five minute mile.
“I wanted to have more competition with the 6A and 5A girls I raced against. I was only racing the 1600 so I wasn’t tired from the 3200. I really wanted to break the five minute mile mark which I did so that was really cool.”
Spears has plans to run in college and with a record-list like she’s got, it’s no surprise some big names have come calling.
“I’ve talked to some coaches and go on some official visits this fall,” Spears said. “I have official visits set to Abilene Christian, A&M, Mississippi State and Tech. A couple of them have unofficially given me some offers. I’ll get more precise and exact offers when I go on official visits.”
