Team Coverage Continues: An Interview with Henderson Grad Alex Knapp

by Jarrett Felix with help from Alex Knapp

Over the years West Chester Henderson has become a consistent contender within District One and the state of Pennsylvania. The 2012 and 2013 Henderson teams were two of the best the state has ever seen and the 2014 edition of the team nearly pulled off a pair of end of season upsets to get back among the state's elite. Through the highs and lows, the ever changing expectations and all the historic moments was Alex Knapp. A smart, knowledgeable and talented runner, Knapp played key roles in some of Henderson's greatest successes. He was generous enough to take some time from his busy schedule (he is preparing for his first semester at MIT in the fall) to share some of his experiences with us in preparation for the 2015 season. Thanks to Alex for his help and I hope you enjoy reading what he has to say as much as I did.

JF: How did you get your start in cross country? What attracted you to the sport and what kept you coming back for more?

AK: I first got involved sometime around first grade with a running club at my elementary school where a few kids met and ran during recess at least once a week. Then, a friend of mine was in a running club outside of school that met three times a week so I started running with them. I then ran intramural XC during 6thgrade. I distinctly remember one run when I was running ahead with some of the 8th graders (I was probably trying to show off or something) on the team that the course record holder for our school, AJ Chaborek, told me that if anyone had a chance of beating his record it would be me. That was enough to convince me to try XC instead of soccer during 8th grade and the season went well enough for me to decide to ditch soccer completely after 9th grade and run XC 10th-12th. I always like to say that the reason I’ve stuck with it so far is because I am super competitive and this was the sport I saw my best chances of succeeding in, but the team aspect also has had a large influence on me with continuing.

JF: Talk briefly about the 2012 XC State Championship Season. That was a fantastic win and a tight match up. You guys even rested some of your best guys at districts to save up. What was the plan throughout the season?

AK: It took a great race from Seamus, a huge comeback from Sam,as well as the win from Tony to steal the title, which for me, was an amazing introduction to high-school XC. We knew our goal the entire season was just to beat O’Hara at states. That’s pretty much all we cared about, and then regionals was kind of an afterthought once we realized we had a shot at nationals. Winning the race was definitely one of the most exciting moments of high school for me, but also one of the most stressful when they decided to review whether or not we had actually won after we had already celebrated.

JF: Talk about the NXN Regional Meet in 2012. This was really your big breakthrough, what made that race special? After being the #7 at states, how did it feel to be a big reason why you’re team was going to nationals.

AK: I still consider this race to be my best race during high school mostly because I ran much better than I thought I could. Up until then I usually went out conservatively during races and paced myself well, but for some reason I decided to sprint out of the start of that race, which ended up working quite well for me. That course has been my favorite place to run ever since; the second half downhill suited my racing style quite well. It was quite an amazing feeling knowing that our team wouldn’t have made it to Oregon if I hadn’t raced as well, but I was mostly just excited that we would be going there as a team of 6 non-seniors.

JF: In 2013 there were some big expectations on your team. How did you handle the pressure and continue to make great strides and improve?

AK: We entered 2013 wanting to be national champions. That was huge motivation for me to work really hard and to do my best to stay healthy. To take some of the pressure off being returning state champs, we tried to think of states as a race to see how well we could each do individually and to see how many individual medals we could take home. If we did well individually, we knew that the team title would come with it. We also decided that nationals was the main goal and states was just a stepping stone towards that, which helped take some pressure off as well.

JF: Which was more satisfying if either, 2012 or 2013? What are your favorite memories from those two seasons and two programs? What made those teams so special?

AK: I think most of my teammates would agree with me that the 2012 season was a lot more exciting and fulfilling. Despiterepeating at states in 2013, the national meet was rather disappointing and the season didn’t completely live up to our expectations. Winning states in 2012 was definitely the highlight of that season. As for the next year, our dominating race at districts as well as my first time sub 16 for a 5k was probably the most exciting part of the season. Winning an individual medal the next week was also very exciting, but our team was overall less excited about the result as a few of the runners ran worse than they hoped and expected to. Those teams were both special mostly because they were almost the exact same team. We spent two years almost unchanged and had a lot of time to get to know each other and suffer through workouts together.

JF: The 2014 season was a completely different animal after you graduated all your varsity teammates. How did your mindset change that season? How did the team goals change if at all?

AK: It was weird at first to have none of the usual leaders on the team. However Gordy and Will quickly stepped up as leaders to help make the season easier for me as well as the rest of the team. We still wanted to give a state title a shot and we knew we wanted to win Chesmonts and Districts again, but our goals became slightly more individually minded for that season. Our top four all wanted medals at states if at all possible, and I wanted to go back to nationals even if it meant going alone. Our goals were definitely very ambitious and the only one we were able to completely meet was to continue our duel meet win streak, but we still had a fun with that season.

JF: You had career best finishes at chesmonts, districts and states and helped lead a somewhat inexperienced team to a near district title. What are your favorite moments from your senior season?

AK: Even though we weren’t as good, my senior season was still a lot of fun. Early on there was a lot of talk that I wouldn’t run nearly as well without my all-american training partners, so I enjoyed proving that medaling the year before at states wasn’t a fluke. As a team, being huge underdogs in most of our big races even though we knew we were better than most people expected made the season interesting. We were really motivated to prove people wrong and it was exciting to see how much Smucker improved each week. Early on in the season when coach Kelly told me that he thought that Spencer would medal at states I wasn’t sure what to think but I knew he had a ton of room to improve after watching his first few races. Turning around after I had finished at states and watching him finish shortly after mewas exciting and I couldn’t help but wonder if it was enough to get him the medal.

Watching Will, Gordy, and Smucker finish at Springton Manor and knowing that we were going to win the duel meet and having four medalists at districts/ proving to everyone that we were serious contenders were definitely two of the best moments of the season as well.

JF: Looking ahead to next year, what kind of potential do you see from the Henderson team? 

AK: They will definitely be underdogs like last year, but I think people should have no reason to underestimate the team again. I don’t think there is much chance of a state title (especially considering the competition), but I do think there are a lot of unheard of runners on the team that are ready to appear on the PA running scene. They have a solid group of senior leaders, an underrated group of juniors, and one of the top runners in the state that is mentally strong enough to deal with the pressure. As of now, they are relatively inexperienced and the season could go a lot of ways, but if they work hard enough and stay healthy, they can place higher at states than we did last year.

JF: You did a lot of tight racing with Downingtown West a season ago, particularly Henry Sappey. What do you think of this team for 2015? Do you see any resemblance to some of the Henderson teams you were on in the past?

There’s no question about it, DWest is going to be very good this year. Their team is incredibly deep and could probably suffer a few injuries and still perform extremely well at states, which reminds me of our 2012 team when we were also super deep. A few of my former teammates and I have compared their team this year to our team in 2013 and although we are definitely a bit biased toward our own team, we agreed that it would be a very tight race if the two teams had raced during the same year. If all goes well, they should have a good shot at nationals.

JF: What are your own plans for next year? What will you be studying and what are your running plans/goals?

Next year I will be attending MIT and I will be studying some form of engineering although I haven’t really decided what type yet. I will be running for their team and my main goal is to make it onto their varsity. I am not completely sure what to expect from college running, but I have gotten a great summer of training in with a bunch of the Henderson alumni that are still running and I am excited for the season.