Oak Ridge's Brock Hobeck places 2nd in St. Vincent Invite

Oak Ridge senior Brock Hobeck finished in second place in the St. Vincent Invitational on Wednesday, Aug. 30, in Perryville, Missouri.

It was 20 degrees cooler compared to the Jackson Invitational just five days ago, which was a clear benefit for the runners.

“I felt good during the warmup,” Hobeck said. “We got a good breeze, some nice weather. So that really helps out for me.”

Hobeck finished just three seconds behind Potosi’s Ezekiel Sisk, who won the race with a time of 17:43.275. The senior is familiar with the St. Vincent course and his 17:46.039 finish was his best time racing the meet.

“Definitely my best,” Hobeck said. “Beat it by 30 seconds.”

Hobeck, a Semoball Awards finalist, finished 15th in Class 1 last season with a time of 17:46.7, a year after just narrowly missing out on being an all-state member as a sophomore year. He was the only all-state member of the Blue Jays last year and to stay on top for this season, he put in extra training throughout the hot summer to prepare for this season, running 40 miles per week because come race time, “Three miles is a little bit easier than seven miles.”

"I'm really hoping for a top 10 state finish," he added. "I really put in the work so I'm really going to try that."

Hobeck got into cross country on the advice of his parents. It turns out that running wasn't just an immense benefit for him physically, but also mentally.

"I'm not a very confident person so running really helps me with that," Hobeck said. "I always liked running. My parents said I was really good at it, said I should try it out, and I loved it."

Along with Hobeck, five other Blue Jays finished among the top 20 to finish second as a team. The top five runners are calculated in the scoring, in which the combined placeholders equal the team score and the lowest wins. Cohen Hahs (18:41.613) finished 10th, Ty Wilson (19:03.012) finished 11th, Karson Ward (19:10.562) finished 13th, and Jayden McAlister (19:43.608) finished 17th.

"We had a couple of guys injured but the freshmen and sophomore really stepped it up this season," Hobeck said. "We've been doing great this year, team-wise."