Seniors offer leadership

Ruth and Gehrig.

Montana and Rice.

Magic and Kareem.

One is the vocal leader, the other the quiet rock that holds the team together.

While Ben Poffenroth and Brendan Chestnut aren’t exactly as well known as those famous duos, they are two of the reasons the defending state cross country champion Ferris Saxons are once again the team to beat in Washington.

The Saxons return five runners from last season’s title team, and the two seniors are hoping that experience will lead to a return trip in November.

“You just know how hard you’re going to have to work,” Poffenroth said. “What it feels like to win state is the coolest thing ever, and everyone wants that back. We’ve got five guys back who are experienced with it, and they know what it takes.

“It helps us out major.”

“I think it meant a lot to us,” said Chestnut. “You could just say it validated all the work we had put in.

“It was a team effort. It wasn’t something we just did overnight; it took a long time to do.

“That made it even more meaningful.”

As the defending champion, Ferris already is discovering what it’s like to be the bull’s-eye on everyone’s schedule, as the Saxons escaped with a 29-27 win over Mead in its season-opening meet last week.

“Having it be that close wants to makes us work even harder,” said Poffenroth.

“We sat down and talked about it at practice the next day, and everybody knows how much it means. We talked about how everybody is gunning after us because we’re state champs and how much harder we’re going to have to work.”

The Saxons may be the team everyone is gunning for, but their coach knows his senior leaders will show the younger runners the way to the top.

“Getting the experience is the key,” said Ferris head coach Mike Hadway. “My guys will talk to them (younger runners) about if you want to be good, this is the workout you have to do; you have to meet every day in the summer. This is what this group is really good at.

“I’ve coached here 19 years, and this is the best group, as a large group, to do that.”

That type of leadership starts with the Saxon captain Poffenroth, who began running back in kindergarten.

“What impresses me most about him is that he’s a very good team player in the sense of getting them (his teammates) motivated,” Hadway said. “He’s very vocal that way.

“He’s the very opposite of Brendan. He’s been running since he was a little kid.

“He knows the ropes of getting ready for a competition, and transfers that to the guys … getting them to relax, and not psyching themselves out. He’s very, very talented.

“He’s the type of leader that freshman really look up to. He’s got a charisma about him.”

“As the captain, I feel that one of my main responsibilities is to get everybody psyched and to just let them know how I feel,” said Poffenroth. “We’re all the same, so that’s what everyone is thinking, and if one person is off, then somebody needs to let them know.

“I don’t think I’m very good at it, but I like doing it. I like being the one giving the speeches.

“It pumps me up, too, and I think it pumps the rest of the team up and gets them psyched.”

While Poffenroth is firing up his teammates, Chestnut steadily helps his team to victory, as he did with his third-place finish at the Mead meet that made the difference in giving the Saxons the narrow win.

“He’s a very quiet leader as far as working hard,” said Hadway. “He’s very consistent in training over the summer, keeping in shape.

“He’s not afraid of running to the front. He’s a smart and talented kid.

“As he’s matured, his basic strength has just gotten stronger and stronger.”

“It’s motivating to have other people gunning for you, but I think it’s proving to ourselves how hard we’ve worked and how good we are,” said Chestnut, who took up cross country as a freshman as a way of staying in shape to play soccer. “It gets more to how we view our success and our running, not how others look at us.”

While the road to a repeat is the last thing they are thinking about, the Saxon seniors think they can get their team back to the Promised Land.

“I’m waiting to see how I run in the next couple of meets, but I’d like to be up there at state and be one of the top 10,” said Chestnut, who finished 46th at the state meet last year. “I think we have the people.

“We have to run the race, but I think we can do it.”

“I’d love to win state,” said Poffenroth. “That’s on everyone’s mind.

“Teamwise and individualwise, I would just love to win state. I just need to get my racing mentality back on, and then I think I can do it.

“I’ve trained a lot harder than I usually do. It’s there for the taking right now.”