Zachariah Hoyle remembers something Justin Laverriere, one of his running coaches at Messalonskee High School, once told him. You don’t have to run well, Laverriere said, you have to run perfect.

“He didn’t mean stride-wise or speed-wise,” Hoyle said, “but run perfect in giving everything you have.”

This fall Hoyle certainly gave everything he had each time he raced. The Messalonskee junior placed third in both the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class A championship and Northern Maine regional, then took seventh place at the Class A state championship meet.

For his efforts, Hoyle is the Morning Sentinel Boys Cross Country Runner of the Year.

“He trained really hard this year,” Messalonskee cross country coach Sara Rushton said.

As a sophomore, Hoyle placed 12th at the KVAC meet and 19th at the state meet. To prepare for his junior season, Hoyle made sure to get in a lot of miles — particularly hills. One hill — up Maple Street in Oakland — stood out.

“It’s a 70 degree incline. You go right up,” Hoyle said. “It’s not very long, but it’s very steep.”

“We did that (hill) at least once or twice per week,” Rushton said.

In workouts on the high school track Rushton would give Hoyle a time to try to hit. Hoyle would consistently reach those goals and then some.

“He blew those times away,” Rushton said. “He had worked hard and he was ready to go. He had his goals planned.”

Hoyle feels his best race of the season was the regional championship at Belfast. That day, Hoyle ran his personal best time of 16:16.63. At both the KVAC and regional meets Hoyle finished third behind Lewiston’s Osman Doorow — the eventual state champion — and Hampden’s Paul Casavant.

At the state meet at Twin Brook in Cumberland Hoyle went out fast and led early. Looking back, Hoyle thinks he went out too quickly. He finished with a time of 16:52.7.

“I knew something was wrong when I was ahead of Osman,” Hoyle said. “I ran with (Doorow and Casavant) in regionals and knew I’d have to step it up in states. I learned from it, to not go out too fast and finish strong.”

Hoyle will join Messalonskee’s track team for the indoor and outdoor seasons. Next fall he hopes to race even stronger.

“I’d like to go sub-16 (minutes),” Hoyle said, “and I think I can do that.”

Rushton said she thinks Hoyle still hasn’t met his potential yet.

“The sky’s the limit. It all depends on how hard he wants to push himself,” Rushton said. “He’s very keen in knowing what his body can and cannot do.”

Travis Lazarczyk — 861-9242

tlazarczyk@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @TLazarczykMTM

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