Stark Enterprise: HutchCC cross country faces new challenges as college student

By Lucas Barlow
Sports Editor

The annual NJCAA Cross Country Championship is near, with the meet Saturday in Fort Dodge, Iowa. Among the many Hutchinson Community College runners who qualified, standout freshman Jared Stark is one of them. He qualified at the Region 6 Championship in Garden City on October 30th with a time of 27 minutes, 28.1 seconds. However, Stark wasn’t always in the spotlight.

Stark grew up in Augusta, where he was homeschooled from kindergarten through 12th grade. His mother was his teacher.

Stark began his running career in eighth grade, when he joined a small homeschool track team known as the Wichita Warriors. The Warriors provided opportunities to kids who didn’t attend a high school. A year later, he joined the cross country team when he was a freshman.

“Both of those seasons went really well, and that was about the time I started thinking maybe I could run in college,” Stark said.

After four years of experiencing success with running, Stark earned a scholarship to Hutchinson Community College, even though he was never allowed to run in postseason meets, because he was not on a high school team.

Although never attending a public school, Stark said his experience has been going great.

“I’ve been fortunate to have some great teammates that I’ve become close friends with, and some awesome coaches and teachers to help me along,” Stark said. The only thing that’s been hard for him to adjust to is the hundreds of people walking around on campus.

His first collegiate race took place in Hutchinson, where he was amazed by the other competitors. The speed of the other runners was a major change compared to the runners of the small meets he took part in back home.

“It was a bit surreal seeing just how good all these other runners were,” Stark said. “The level of competition is just so much higher than it was in high school, it’s crazy.”

With the NJCAA championship around the corner, Stark feels not only confident in himself, but the whole cross country team as well.

“I’m very excited about the race,” Stark said. “The pieces are finally all falling into place, and I’m feeling fit and ready to run fast. Our coaches have been doing a great job of getting us primed to run our best, and I think both our men’s and women’s teams are ready to put together some strong races, and have the potential to end up placing really well.”

Along with Stark, 14 other runners will join him at the NJCAA Championship. Women: Maggie Lambert, American Garcia, Macy Linenberger, Sarah Patteson, Saw Ahmara, Aileen Gomez, Caitlin Schlickau. Men: Connor Kaufman, Jared Stark, Frant Clothier, Jeremy Stiebens, Tony Ibarra, Kade Gerlach, Gavin Alexander, Myles Hansen.

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