Kenny Wallace '17 Recruiting Profile

My name is Kenny Wallace and I am writing in hopes of catching your attention in regards to my possible chances of participating in cross country and track for your program.   I go to Mathews High School in Vienna, Ohio, which is near Youngstown and about an hour south of Cleveland.  My school is quite small in student population and my graduating class will close to sixty students in total.  Due to a lack of support and interest in running in my community, I am a one man distance team in both the fall and spring, meaning I train almost completely independently.  I have run track since seventh grade, and I started the cross country program at my school my junior to allow me to compete in meets two years ago.  Throughout my high school running career I have experienced many shortcomings and disappointments, but each time I have endured a low, I have redeemed myself with a rewarding high.  On top of running, I am a four starter for the varsity soccer team (meaning I have played soccer and ran cross the past two years), in which I am my school's all time leader in goals scored and hold the single season record for goals scored, and will be a two year starter for the varsity basketball team.  I do hope in you reading this, you will warrant some attention toward my future in your respective program.

My freshman year I ran a PR of 4:44 in my district track meet, placing fifth, thus missing out on going to regionals by one place.  After that meet, I began to fully devote myself to training year round in order to not fall short again.  With the lack of a cross country team for me to compete on, the fall of my sophomore year included many road races.  With no true constructive training, apart from just going out and "running", I averaged between 16:45 and 17:20 for 5ks, with a few 35 minute performances in 10ks.  Then entering my sophomore track season I began to understand what "real" training was, mixing in speed work and long runs throughout the season.  This resulted in me running consistently in the 4:30s for the 1600 and 10:20s for the 3200.  I avenged my shortcoming from my freshman season at the 2015 district meet, placing third, but once again fell short at the regional meet, placing fifth (4:30.85), and missing out on a state berth by tenths of a second.  After the regional meet, I was fortunate enough to meet Chris Rupe and he extended an invitation to train with his guys over the summer and into the fall.

The summer of 2015 has easily been one of the most crucial periods of my running career.  That summer I met many people in the local running community through Chris Rupe, and participated at a few running camps in which I ultimately decided upon trying to start cross country at my school and play soccer at the same time.  I was thankfully successful in my attempt for approval to run from my school, and I participated in a total of seven meets.  In my first ever meet, I placed third behind eventual Ohio D3 State Champion Tristan Dahmen and beat state contender Allen Sparks, both of Maplewood High School, an illustrious Ohio Cross Country and Track program at McDonald's Billy Goat Invitational (17:25.9).  Unfortunately, I did not realize how difficult it would be to balance playing soccer and running cross at the same time, so my overall results were not as good as I had initially envisioned, but I still managed to run a PR of 16:12 and advance to the regional meet.  My 2015 regional meet still lingers in my head to this day, as it led to the most gut-wrenching shortcoming of my career.  Although not completely rested or trained as well as I could have been due to playing soccer, I was having a solid race, and with less than a half mile to go, I was nestled in a pack of runners placed 7th through 14th, meaning I was in prime position to advance.  I will include a newspaper article that fully explains the event, but to summarize, with less than fifty meters to go, I began to lose the feeling in my arms and legs and plummeted to the ground.  I mustered the strength to crawl the rest of the way to the finish, but dropped from a top sixteen position all the way to 25th place.  It was absolutely horrific.  

Putting my failures of the fall behind me, I buckled down over the winter and upped my mileage.  I participated in indoor track meets for the first time, running fast enough to qualify for the Ohio Indoor State Track Meet in both the 1600m (my 1600 time was from a one mile conversion of 4:36.8) and 800m (2:03.76).  The only training for indoor I took part in were intervals on the treadmill, usually late at night, due to my basketball schedule.  At the indoor state meet, I placed seventh in the 1600m (4:29.31), and then ran the 800m 15 minutes later in a less impressive 2:06.81.  The indoor state meet gave me a lot of confidence looking forward to the outdoor season, and I started the season well winning the meet MVP at the Joe Lane invitational, winning the 1600m, placing 2nd in the 800m ,and 4th in the 3200m.  I frequently got to run against Allen Sparks and Tristan Dahmen of Maplewood throughout the season, eventually beating both a few times as the year progressed.  Halfway through my junior track season, I realized my chances in state tournament for the 3200m were not as strong as they were for the 1600m, so I ran the 3200m hard one time (9:49.1), then chose to focus on the 1600m.  My season went well and I dropped time throughout, and at my district meet, advanced in the 1600m, placing third (4:25.76), and also advancing in the 800m, placing third (2:00.32).  The next week I finally hurdled my past struggles and placed 2nd at my 2016 regional track meet in the 1600m (4:22.94), and placed 5th at the state meet (4:19.88) the following week.  A rewarding spring.

Now fast-forwarding to most recent endeavors, my 2016 summer training was very good, as I managed to get into excellent shape.  I ran sub 16 minutes in a road race and felt good for the start of the cross country season.  To open the season, I won the Billy Goat Invitational in McDonald, Ohio (16:58), a challenging course in which only few runners have run sub-17, ( a few being Bobby Johnson of Butler University-2013 D3 CC State Champ and 2014 D3 3200m State Champ, Ryan Adams of Furman University- 2013 D2 CC State Runner-Up and 2014 D2 1600m State Champ and State Record Setter), and eventual 2016 D2 Team State Champs, Woodridge, competed at.  Two weeks later I won an invitational at Maplewood High School (16:31.4).  A few days later, while playing soccer, I tore my lateral meniscus, requiring me to have surgery on October 6th.  This meant I was unable to run at all for the bulk of September and the beginning of October.  I was initially told my seasons were over, but I was determined to find a way to compete and get through the regional meet that had plagued me the year before.  Within 8 days of having surgery, I was able to run 5 miles at at about 9:00 pace, and then miraculously was able to run in the district meet on October 22nd and placed 4th (17:19.59).  Then the next week at regionals, I achieved one of the most satisfying accomplishments of my career, edging out a 15th placed finish (17:26.77) and advancing to the state meet.  At the state meet, I placed 36th (16:36.4), improving almost an entire minute in one week.  Although it was not the finish I had hoped for in mid-August, I was still pleased, considering I had only 3 weeks of minimal training leading up to the state meet.  And let it be noted, the runner who finished fifth in my D3 State Race ran 15:57.  The same runner finished behind me in my only two races at the beginning of the 2016 season.

So to date, if you've managed to stay awake reading this :-), I am looking forward to a potential climb up the podium during track season and am proud of how I have responded to the myriad of adversities I have dealt with along the way.  With only 12 career cross country races under my belt, and minimal training with Chris Rupe's McDonald program, I feel if given the opportunity to be coached on a regular basis and provided training partners and a strong regimen, I have the potential to be a strong contributor in the long run for your program.  I will not be 18 years old until after graduation, meaning I am also still quite young compared to the majority of my recruitment class.  Academically, I am set to be the Valedictorian of my class with a 4.0 gpa, and have a composite score of 28 on the ACT and plan to take it one more time in December.  I am the president of my class and the president of my high school's National Honor Society.  I also earned local attention for being honored as "Student Athlete of the Week" by a local news station this past month.  My parents both have doctorates in psychology, but neither have competed in sports competitively at the collegiate level, so this process is still very new on our end.  In terms of other schools, I have had a few offers already, but have opted to not sign this fall in hopes of gaining interest from schools outside of northeast Ohio.  

Thank for your time!  Below I will link my milesplit stats and previous newspaper articles that explain a bit about me.  I appreciate you for reading this long email, and I hope we can gain more contact.

-Kenny Wallace

Mathews High School

Vienna, Ohio

Class of 2017

Ohio Milesplit Account

http://oh.milesplit.com/athletes/4221447-kenny-wallace/stats#.WDDkzvkrLIU

Student Athlete of the Week Honor

http://wytv.com/2016/10/27/student-athlete-kenny-wallace/

A fall 2015 article on my CC/Soccer seasons

http://content.tribtoday.com/?p=644487/Wallace-chasing-more-than-1-dream.html

A summary of my "fall" at the 2015 Regional CC Meet

http://www.tribtoday.com/sports/high-school-sports/2015/11/mathews-runner-wallace-ok-after-tough-finish/

An article from the beginning of my 2016 track season

http://content.tribtoday.com/?p=669648/Mathews-runner-looks-ahead.html

A little insight from after the 2016 Regional Track Meet

http://www.tribtoday.com/sports/high-school-sports/2016/05/led-by-dahmen-maplewood-boys-third-in-regional/

An article after my season opening win in CC from this past August

http://www.tribtoday.com/sports/high-school-sports/2016/08/wallace-overcomes-challenge-to-win/

Some musings from a local newspaper writer

http://www.tribtoday.com/sports/sport-columns/2016/08/some-observations-labrae-is-good-wallace-is-special/

A feature on my 2016 CC season

http://www.tribtoday.com/sports/high-school-sports/2016/09/wallace-on-mission-in-cross-country/

An update after my injury from mid-Spetember

http://www.tribtoday.com/sports/sport-columns/2016/09/howland-runners-take-aim-at-title/

A preview before the 2016 Regional CC Meet

http://www.tribtoday.com/sports/high-school-sports/2016/10/girards-basinger-other-individual-runners-set-for-regional-at-boardman/

A reflection on my journey to state and preview of the 2016 CC State Meet

http://www.tribtoday.com/sports/high-school-sports/2016/11/mathews-wallace-heading-to-state/

A small conclusion to my season mid-way through the article

http://www.tribtoday.com/sports/high-school-sports/2016/11/garfields-klouda-grabs-5th-place/