By Eshan Singh and Bailey Kreszswick, Staff Reporters

Freshman Parker Warkentine has raced into the cross-country spotlight this year.

Throughout the season, Warkentine has competed and placed in many races, finishing fourth at the William Tennent Invitational, second at the Cherokee Challenge, third in the Central League meet and fourth at the Six Flags Wild Safari Invitational.

It is almost guaranteed that Warkentine will achieve a top-ten finish in any given race. Having someone on the team place this high helps the team massively overall, and finding a student with such talent is rare.

“I’ve had probably two other runners since 2004 that are comparable to Parker,” Conestoga cross-country coach Rick Hawkins said.

Hawkins is a neighbor of Warkentine, so he has been recruiting him since he was 2 years old. At age 7, Warkentine started regularly showing up to the team’s summer practices, and he was able to keep up with the 18-year-olds on the team.

“At that point in time, I knew I had something special,” Hawkins said.

Making this season his first, Warkentine has been training for this moment for a long time. His mom, who went to Villanova University on a cross-country scholarship, introduced him to the sport when he was very young, and she has been motivating him since then.

“She makes me get out. She makes me go on runs. She helps with all that,” Warkentine said.

His siblings have also been beneficial to his training. Warkentine’s sister, who was on the Conestoga cross-country team, left for college this year, but she introduced Warkentine to team members and gave him suggestions on where to run for practice over the summer. Warkentine’s brother has been more of a motivator.

Like all good coaches, Hawkins guides Warkentine to being the best runner he can be. He offers advice on how Warkentine ought to run, what training schedule he should use and how he can have a good mental approach to cross-country.

“He is more or less fearless and will jump out and try to win the race in the first 100 meters, and he’ll try to sustain that for the whole race. It doesn’t always play into his favor,” Hawkins said.

No athlete can rely on talent alone, and Warkentine is no exception. He worked with his coach throughout the season to improve and excel.

Warkentine earned himself a spot in the state championships, where he finished 30th out of 237 runners and was the fastest of all freshmen in Pennsylvania.

Eshan Singh can be reached at [email protected].

Bailey Kreszswick can be reached at [email protected].