Athletes of the Week: Sam Kim, Will Coogan, Jinwoo Kang

While some may call the cross country team “a cult,” senior Blane Zhu believes that the team’s closeness stems from the shared feeling that they’re “all in this together.” The captains leading the 2019–20 season, seniors Will Coogan, Sam Kim and Jinwoo Kang, foster the team’s culture of running faster and longer while enjoying the sport.

Coogan began his running career long before Exeter. “My family runs all the time,” Coogan said. “Both my parents run and so do my two older sisters. I also grew up playing sports along with cross country like soccer and baseball.”

However, what keeps Coogan running is the high level of competitive spirit that each race evokes in him. “It’s always been something that I was going to do, but after I started, I found I loved the competitive nature of running itself,” he said.

Kang, on the other hand, had minimal competitive running experience before coming to Exeter. He was originally a soccer recruit and played for the Big Red soccer team his prep and lower year. While he enjoyed soccer, Kang fell in love with running during winter and spring track.

Kang devoted himself to running and decided to pursue the sport in all three seasons. “I switched from soccer to cross country, partly because I really liked the team and partly to help my track season,” he said.

Kim, like Coogan, began running competitively in middle school when he and his friends decided to try out for their track team. At Exeter, however, he decided to experiment with a different type of running. “When I got to Exeter, I fell in love with distance running,” he said. “It was a culture I couldn’t find anything else to compare to.”

Kim elaborated on the team dynamic, as well as the tone set by the captains his own prep year. “They started out as slow runners their prep year and then trained really hard to become the fastest people on the team who brought home championships. Everyone wanted to follow their footsteps,” he said. “After watching how much progress they made, I had it in my head that if they could do it, anyone could do it.”

Coogan echoed Kim’s sentiments, explaining how the captains he looked up to as an underclassman inspired his own leadership style today. “The captains were setting a standard for the whole team,” Coogan said. “Even if you couldn’t run with them because they were older and faster, you could still model your work ethic after them. I try to help the kids on our team show up when it’s a workout day and give it the best they can—not to overdo it, but to work hard.”

This dynamic is coming full circle, as prep Oliver Brandes shared that Coogan, Kim and Kang’s leadership and manner of conduct is something he hopes to emulate someday. “My captains are mentors for how I want to conduct myself for when I am a senior runner,” he said. “In addition to their intense work ethic in training, they go on morning runs which inspires me to work harder.”

Zhu agreed, noting the captains’ positive impact on their training. “We always try to stick together during runs and when we’re running with people, we often talk with each other,” he said. “I think the captains really helped to establish that culture on the team.”

In addition to encouraging camaraderie, lower Garrett Paik noted how the captains have positively affected the runners’ attitude towards their sport. “They’re incredibly resilient; I’ve never seen any of them give up on a run or during a race, something that carries over to the rest of the team,” he said.

Upper Phil Horrigan admired the captains’ diligence. “Distance running is the kind of sport where you have to work hard to get better, and our captains work hard every day,” he said.

The cross country team has already had a successful season, according to Brandes; the varsity team won their first meet, and JV their second. Despite the varsity team’s recent loss, their top runner, Coogan, brought home a gold medal at one of New Hampshire’s largest meets. “We’ve been doing well so far and, like most teams, we have room for improvement,” Brandes said. “I look forward to seeing how we do over the course of the season.”

While the captains make up much of the team’s fire power, the collective effort of each runner is integral to cross country. “We could have the best runner in the world our team—he could go out, race and crush everybody by two minutes,” Coogan said. “But if we have three, four, five runners lagging behind, we’re not going to win the meet no matter how well that runner performed. So, everyone is very important, which is part of the reason the sport is so fun.”