While many of Green Hope’s incredible cross-country times come from the upperclassmen, there are some underclassmen making their mark on the team with incredible times. Nathan Vo (‘28) especially has been a highlight of the cross-country season with record-breaking runs. He now holds the fastest freshman time in the history of the Green Hope cross-country team.
The Green Hope Falcon sat down with Nathan Vo to talk about his process of becoming one of the best runners on the team. Nathan Vo started running long before high school, beginning his career in sixth grade. With all this time to get started, he began his Green Hope season with a 16:55 for his 5K. Through the season, he dropped a significant amount of time, running a 16:08.21 at regionals last weekend.
The Vo family has a long history of running for Green Hope and giving the team some stunning times. Both of his brothers, Andrew (‘23) and Thomas Vo (‘20) ran for Green Hope with times of 16:08 and 15:10, respectively. Thomas holds the school record for fastest 5K, an incredible feat which would take another elite athlete to break.
The pressure is clearly on Vo to live up to this family reputation, but he is up to the challenge. When asked how his brothers had influenced him in running, he said, “They made me really competitive because now I want to beat all of their times.” While he still has a long way to go before he can achieve this, he still has 3 more seasons to do it.
While his brothers help fuel some of his goals, he still has aspirations of his own. He discussed his goals for his senior year of high school, saying, “I want to be sub-15 minutes by then.” This would be a new 5K record at Green Hope, but a record he may be well suited to break.
A lot goes into a successful cross-country season, and Vo clearly put the effort in. He said, “I’ve been really consistent, coming out to practice every day and making sure I recover after runs.” The work doesn’t end for him there though. During the offseason, he will, “stay consistent and run every day with one day off a week,” to improve for next year.
In addition to cross-country, Vo also plans to put his skills to the test on the track. He plans on doing both the 3200 and 1600 events. These long-distance events will translate well from cross-country and give him an edge over his competitors, setting him up for success throughout the rest of his high school career.
