After the initial countdown, senior Will Wells takes off, saving his energy until the end of the terrain where the hills take over. He continuously watches the clock as he makes it closer and closer to the finish line. When he finally makes it and sees the time, he knew that he was the new record holder for the Revere High School (RHS) Cross Country team.
On September 20th, Wells was in Louisville, Kentucky, running five thousand meters, or 3.1 miles, and he beat the record by 0.04, finishing the race at 15.05 compared to the previous record which was 15.09. Wells has been in Cross Country since his freshman year and breaking the record has been his long-term goal his entire high school career.
“I wanted to make a name for myself, and obviously I had done that throughout the years, but it was just something I was chasing freshman year. . . .I went into that race night, and I was going to leave everything I had out there,” Wells said.
Wells was looking at the clock time periodically throughout the race. While he was on the last hill of the race he made it a point to be focused in the race throughout the entire time.
“I think my parents were probably more excited than I was, [after I got to the finish line] I kind of just was like, ‘all right, what’s next? What’s next?’ But. . . after that race, it definitely hit me and I was really excited about it,” Wells said.
The previous record holder Josh Sabo had reached out to Wells and would talk to him and help him with some ways he could beat the record. He served as a type of mentor for Wells throughout his high school career.
“He always reached out to me from freshman year, just kind of giving me advice and stuff. . . .[It] even felt better to me when he reached out to kind of congratulate me,” Wells said.
Wells and the entire Varsity Cross Country team got to Louisville two days before the race to check out the track they would have to run so they could prepare for it. When walking through the course, he planned out what exactly he would do during each specific part in the course so he did not feel overwhelmed with anything during the actual race.
“I kind of knew that this specific race was going to be the race [where I] had my best shot at the school record. It’s definitely a fast course. There’s some hills in the back end. . . .I kind of just planned it out really well,” Wells said.
During the season, Wells not only completed his goal of breaking the record, he also reached another goal by qualifying for states with the entire cross country team.
“Last year, I qualified by myself individually, and it’s a different feeling to be with your teammates and I wanted to have that,” Wells said.
When the RHS Principal Doug Faris heard about Wells breaking the record, he emailed the entire student body to let everyone know this new achievement in RHS history.
“The communications specialist Brenda Mole, who works at the Central Office, did the graphic for Will and then put it out on social media. . . .And then I think I made it an announcement that morning,” Faris said.
Cross Country Coach Mark Purdy appreciates Wells’ work ethic and thinks that one one of the things that set him apart from others. He also appreciates the work Wells puts in to be the best he can be.
“I think lots of people have natural talent, which he does, but he also has a real commitment to run off season [as well as] during the season,” Purdy said.
Wells is consistent when it comes to practicing outside of practice. He runs every day for an hour after school. He also understands that taking breaks help him with his performance just as much as practicing physically does.
“I’ll take a Saturday off, or, if I have a race, I’ll take the next day off after that race,” Wells said.
He also has some type of pre-meet ritual where he has the same meal before every meet. He found that this meal has just the right amount of protein needed to give him the energy to do his very best during meets.
“I have salmon and ravioli. It’s spinach ravioli [for dinner]. So that’s just a thing I do. . . .[For breakfast], I’ll do like a peanut butter bagel, kind of just eat a little bit before the race, maybe a banana,” Wells said.
Even though the Cross Country season is over, Wells keeps himself busy by being on the basketball team during the winter. Later in the winter, he plans on running for some indoor track meets outside RHS. During the spring, Wells will compete for the RHS track team and begin running once more. After graduation, he plans on majoring in Business/Finance with a Cross Country/Track commit at The Ohio State University.
