Athlete: Bobby Hastie - Career Stats
High School: Robbinsville
College: St. Joseph's University
What was your most memorable race/throw/jump/vault/moment?
My most memorable race.. well I would say there's two. First was in cross country my junior year when our team won Mercer County Championship for the first time in school history. We all needed big races, and we needed our fifth man to come through for us, and he actually did that day. For that to happen and work out for us was amazing. As an individual, cross country groups as a senior was a really memorable race. I ended up finishing 7th at groups with a 16:41 after being 10th at sectionals. That race helped make my senior year season more worthwhile since I had been running pretty awful up to that point, and I earned an individual MOC berth which was pretty rewarding.
2016 Group 2 XC Championship Race
Who would you consider your biggest competition over your four years?
It's kind of changed through high school but I would have to say that over the past few years Evan Minor from Voorhees was someone who I would always compare myself to. I knew that if I had beaten or been right near him that meant it was a pretty good race for me, and he's a cool kid too so we would talk a lot before and after races.
What was your greatest accomplishment?
Again I think winning the XC county championship as a team when I was a junior was really awesome. Also, from my predictions, I was pretty happy that I accurately predicted Princeton to win MOC in XC this past season, didn't think that would actually happen.
If you could do it all over again what would you change about your running or field career in high school?
Figure out how to run a 3200 better. I hate that race. Also I would actually take core seriously.
What were the most difficult obstacles you had to overcome?
I never really got badly hurt so I think after my junior year when all the people I typically ran with graduated and I ended up having to run alone, that really sucked. I was always used to running with teammates, working out with people around me, and to be working out alone and doing distance days alone was really weird and took me a while to get used to. Also I got pneumonia in between winter and spring this year which wasn't fun but I bounced back pretty quick.
What will you miss the most?
Definitely just going to high school meets. I've really become such a fan of the sport so I'm gonna miss going to a state meet, invitational, or whatever and getting to see some of the best talent in the country compete against each other. I also don't think my college goes to the Armory, so I'm going to miss going to the Armory and Holmdel as well. Those two places where I always felt a responsibility to perform better because of the historical significance of each of those places.
What advice would you give to younger athletes?
Don't overthink things. Running is simple, whoever finishes the selected distance in the quickest amount of time is the winner, and I never really understood that until my senior year. I used to be afraid of people for their times and that would limit my performances because I didn't think I could run with them. Once I learned to not care and just compete, I raced a lot better and stressed a lot less. So yeah just relax, don't stalk MileSplit to the point where you know everyone's times on the starting line.
What influence has your coach had with respect to your performance and overall life goals?
Coach Brian Harshman has really helped me become the runner and person I want to be. In every season that he's been my coach, I would be running bad/decent times leading up to championship season, and I would always second guess him and think does he know what he's actually doing. But he would always say "we will run fast when it's time to run fast" and 99% of the time when it was time to run fast, I would run my best. He also really cared for me and all the kids on the team on a personal level, he would ask how the college search was going or how our family was doing, which I didn't find in every coach.
Also my head track coach Hutch helped me become a better leader and taught me to be more outspoken and lead our younger athletes and those are leadership skills that I will always have and a lot of that is a credit to him.
Also shout out to coaches Walker, Martine, Curto, Dentino, and Schlentz from XCU you guys definitely helped me too but I can't write novels for everyone.
What are your college plans?
I will be attending Saint Joseph's University where I am fortunate enough to be running cross country and track. I know I'm in great hands there with Coach Glavin. I am majoring in secondary education, and I'll hopefully be making a return to NJ track and field in a few years, just coaching athletes instead of competing as one. But yeah go hawks!
Who would you like to say 'thank you' to?
Thank you first to my parents who always came to watch me, whether I would run a PR or have an awful race, and being there every step of the way. Also, all of my teammates/coaches through high school have made coming to practice fun and never ever boring/redundant. Finally, thanks to my 6th grade football coach who told me I was too slow to be a running back and I had to be an offensive lineman. You're the reason I started running.
Is there anything else you'd like to add?
1. It is a PR not a PB, I'm not making a sandwich with my times.
2. Future predictions:
-Devin Hart top 3 at foot locker nationals as a senior.
-Alexa Westley will break the MOC 3200 meet record by the time she graduates.
-West Windsor North boys win XC meet of Champions in 2017 if and only if Luke Johnson runs cross country.
-Sydney McLaughlin wins the open 400 and 400 hurdles in Tokyo.
3. Nike victory 2s are the best spikes out there.
4. XC > Winter Track > Spring Track
