Zachary Vales finds redemption at Boardman

BOARDMAN — Last season, Zachary Vales lost his appendix, and then several weeks later, his hope of making state as he fell behind the pack at the Boardman Regional.

That's why Streetsboro coach Jon Hannan deemed Saturday's Boardman Regional a "redemption race" for Vales.

Whatever redemption Vales was seeking Saturday, he got, as he became the first two-time state qualifier in the modern era of Streetsboro cross-country with his 22nd-place finish in 16:54.6.

(Per Hannan, the Rockets had a multi-time state qualifier in the eighties, but the sport was wildly different then.)

"I think it's very important for him," Hannan said. "That's been his goal all along, even since the injury. He knew he wasn't going to be able to run his best last year, but this whole season, he's been running really great races, and he knows that he belongs with those guys and he's pushing himself."

Just like last year, Vales got out to a strong start, sitting in the top 24 the entire race. (The top 24 qualify in Division II.)

"I knew I had to stay around 20 because if I dropped off of that, it would be kind of hard to come back,  especially with the amount of people that are in this race," Vales said. "So I tried to just stay there."

Unlike last year, when Vales was always making up for lost time from his battle with appendicitis, and ultimately fell behind the pack at Boardman en route to a 64th-place finish, the senior never fell back Saturday.

Instead, he stayed on the right side of the bubble through the finish line.

"It's a really good feeling," Vales said. "I'm definitely proud of myself for being able to do it. Sophomore year, I was told it's not guaranteed, so I ran out there and I made it, and then of course the next year wasn't guaranteed because of the appendix thing and then to come back and do it [this year] was really good."

Streetsboro senior Zachary Vales overcomes Boardman heartbreak

Last year was a reminder that nothing in cross-country is guaranteed.

A star runner one year can struggle the next.

A state qualifier one year can fall well short the next.

After all, the sport, for as simple as it may seem, with runners taking on the same distance week after week, has endless variables.

There are the injuries that befall runners of all ages.

The knee pain. The tweaked hamstring.

There are the less visible injuries that befuddle runners.

The iron deficiencies. The illness that can permeate a high school team.

Cross-country is full of good luck and bad luck, and Vales was the victim of bad luck last season, when he had to have his appendix removed midway through the 2021 campaign.

The problem for Vales was that while you can make up for not having an appendix, you can't make up for lost time, and the then-junior had missed out on a critical few weeks of the season, when runners all around Northeast Ohio were improving their conditioning and their times while he was forced to wait.

The fact that he even made it to Boardman last year was a tribute to his toughness and his talent. The fact that he was in line to make it to state midway through last year's Boardman Regional was even more impressive.

But ultimately, the physical improbability of what he was trying to do won out.

"Last year going into the two mile, he was in the top 20 or something and he just fell off," Hannan said. "He really started to cramp up and he ended up getting like 80th place or something. He just fell off."

Streetsboro senior Zachary Vales gains momentum during track season

The truth is Vales' redemption tour didn't start in the fall of 2022.

Indeed, equally important was what happened in the spring of 2021, when the then-junior got off to a slow start to track and field season but eventually found his form.

"I'd probably say track got me back," Vales said. "I wasn't running too well at the beginning of the year, and then midway through track season, I started dropping times down. I PRed in the mile, I PRedin the 800, and I think that really helped me come back from last year."

His strong finish to the spring turned into a strong start to the fall.

Vales found immediate success to start his senior season of cross-country, including an impressive performance at the Billy Goat Challenge, and he broke his own school record with a 16:31.3 at the Legends Meet a few weeks ago.

Still, nothing is guaranteed in life and running.

That was true last year.

And it was certainly true when Vales entered Saturday's regional run with the 30th-best seed time with only the top 24 advancing to state.

"I told him, I was like you're going to have to run the race of your career," Hannan said. "Every time he's been at regional, I told him that, but today, specifically, because if he didn't make it out, it's his last race of his career, and to advance out and get back down to the state meet was very important for him and our program."

This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Streetsboro cross-country star Zachary Vales qualifies for state