One could say that running may have been in his blood and while that is an unproven theory, Hopedale’s David Wollensak began running because of the high admiration he held for his older brother Ryan, a varsity runner for the Blue Raiders.
“I had played soccer in elementary school, but when I got into seventh grade I decided to give track a try because my brother did it,” Wollensak said. “I found that I really liked it especially the team aspect of it; the camaraderie and the brotherhood.”
The senior captain noted that while through the past 5 years he has enjoyed the sport, this year he really fell in love with the sport.
“You get perfection by what you put into any specific sport,” he said. “Running allows me to see my results right away.”
As a three season runner (winter and spring track as well as cross country) Wollensak has always been a distance runner, it was his thing. Wollensak, who runs the mile, the 2-mile and the 4x8 relay, choose the distance events, but strongly believes that if he didn’t his coaches probably would have.
“I like running distance because of the endurance part,” the senior said. “It feels really good to cross the finish line despite what you put your body through the last 15 minutes to get there.”
It was in his sophomore season when Wollensak realized that he was a standout when running. Hopedale had won the State Championship in cross country that year and Wollensak found that he was now one of the top runners on the team. And although it was an exuberating feeling to be part of a championship team, Wollensak felt it was because of his brother.
“When we won the States in 2014 Ryan was the number one runner on the team as well as the captain,” he said. “That year I ran for him, it meant a lot to me so I put in the work because this was his team.”
The following year, Wollensak was selected to take part in the Mass Academy Program through WPI in Worcester. Fifty students were selected to take part in rigorous science and math classes at the college that year. This year he became a fulltime WPI student; he was basically a commuter student who was taking classes for free; thus while receiving high school credit toward graduation he was also receiving college credit as well.
Having to commute from Hopedale to Worcester for classes and then back in time for practices at the high school; the senior runner doesn’t find it stressful in the less.
“It doesn’t bother me at all as I really love what I am doing,” he said. “Mass Academy has given me a great education and I wouldn’t trade it or this team for anything. Being college courses I get to work them around my running practices.”
From the perspective of Assistant Indoor Track Coach Joe Drugan Wollensak really improved his running this year.
“This year he really came into his own,” Drugan said. “He has made great improvements since his freshman year, but I’m not really sure what it is this year, but he’s really running great.”
Hopedale head coach Tim Maguire agrees with his assistant.
“David has always shown talent, but he has really come along strong the past two years,” Maguire said. “Originally he was trying to figure out his talent and occasionally questioned it, but he soon figured out that he had a lot of talent. He’s the type of athlete that really enjoys what he’s doing.”
Wollensak wants to major in Physics following graduation from Hopedale High School and is hoping to either attend Columbia or MIT. However, there is one small problem – if he decides to go to Columbia he most likely won’t run track, but at MIT he could.
While that may be something for him to worry about at a later date he still has the rest of the indoor season as well as the entire spring season to run. Like his brother, Wollensak is also a captain this season.
“I like following in his footsteps as I look up to him. I am my own person, but we are very similar,” he said.
As captain this season, Wollensak wants to win the State Championship while providing a great team environment for the rest of the squad. Individually we would like to lower his 2-mile time to 9:40; earlier in the year he not only got below 10 minutes (9:57) he also recorded a best mile time at 4:37.
“Seventeen seconds may seem like a lot when you’re running, but I’ve been chipping away at that time all year and should eventually reach my goal of 9:40,” he said. “The 2-mile is my race and I’m going to put my heart and soul into it.”
According to Maguire, Wollensak is a long term dedicated runner and very much epitomizes the student athlete. In addition to posting a 5.0 at Mass Academy he has become a great leader and role model for the rest of the team. For all his hard work Wollensak was named to the All Academic All State Team; two things he truly loves – academics and running.
Issue Date:
February, 2017
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