MEDALIST’S METTLE
Ruben Rojas was familiar with the feeling.
His body was surging with pain. But at the same time, he was filled with joy.
After crossing the finish line at the UIL state championships at Old Settlers Park in Round Rock, the Seven Lakes senior had accomplished his goal. He had won the bronze medal with a time of 15 minutes, 8.5 seconds.
It was the ending of a stellar campaign for Rojas, the All-Greater Houston boys cross country runner of the year.
Rojas was the District 19-6A champion and took third place at the Region III-6A meet before using his experience to get a leg up on most of the competition at the state championships.
He also captured victories in the Brazosport ISD and College Park Invitational meets earlier in the season. He took sixth in the Nike South Elite race and was eighth at the McNeil Invitational.
He was the catalyst for the Spartans and coach Scott Kenney all season long.
Rojas will run for Syracuse and study biochemical engineering after graduating from Seven Lakes.
Q: How would you describe the progression you’ve made since your freshman year?
Rojas: “I was really fortunate to go into a program that has a good amount of history and great coaches. I’ve been able to develop, and throughout the whole four years, I’ve been able to progress. I’m really lucky that I’ve never even really plateaued, which is really nice. Each year I’ve been able to build upon the success of the last. I’ve also had really great teammates over the years that have guided me the right ways, and that’s really helped me excel.”
Q: What experiences helped you become the runner you are?
Rojas: “My freshman and sophomore years, we had a really good cross team, and I was able to get to the state meet those years and see the competition. I got to race it sophomore year, which was really big. I didn’t do very good sophomore year, which was a bit of a bummer at the time. But it was really nice in the sense that I got the experience. I definitely know that helped me run the way I was able to run this year at state. Just getting the opportunity early on to see high-level competition was a big factor in me being able to perform senior year.”
Q: What were your main goals and expectations for this year?
Rojas: “I had a really good track season last year, so I had really big expectations for myself this year. Through my training, I’ve always known that I could be considered as one of the better runners in the state, if not the nation. I knew this was kind of my last chance to prove that with this being my senior year and my last cross season. I wanted to prove that my name could be up there with everyone else in the top of the nation. My big focus this year was November when it’s championship season. My whole expectation was to run really well in November.”
Q: You finished third at state this year. What was that experience like?
Rojas: “I feel like the big takeaway from the meet was that it was a big test of faith in a sense. The way the state meet works, because you have a field of really talented runners, it always goes out really fast and really hard. I got into the front where I wanted to be, but right at the mile mark, everybody pushed the pace really hard, and I fell back. … In that moment, I saw the other guys kind of get away from me, and in my head, I just had to have trust in all the training that I had done the past four years and the experience I had racing. I had to trust my fitness, and I kept trudging on the whole race, up until the last kilometer. That’s when I kind of got a second breath of air, and I was able to mount a surge and rally all the way back up to the pack that was second, third and fourth.”
Q: What did you feel in that moment when you crossed the finish line?
Rojas: “All four years, since I was a freshman, I saw the people who medaled each year getting up on the medal stand. Knowing that I was finally going to be up there, which was a dream of mine, was really nice. I remember I finished and I fell to the ground. I just laid there for a while just smiling because I was really happy.”