Nov 8, 2023 3 min read

Name: Ryan Pajak

School: Ringgold

Class: Senior

Sport: Cross country

Pajak’s week: Pajak had done about all a cross country runner can do leading into his senior season, but was still searching for a PIAA gold medal.

The future Notre Dame product tore through the course at Hersheypark to win the Class 2A state championship last Saturday to earn the elusive title. Pajak crossed the finish line in 15:21, which was 16 seconds faster than his future Notre Dame teammate Colin Whitaker of Lempeter-Strasburg.

Pajak not only won the championship in Class 2A, but his time was two seconds faster than Class 3A champion Drew Griffith of Butler. Pajak will also be joined at Notre Dame by Griffith.

Pajak set the course record and had a pace of 4:57 per mile. He and Griffith were the only two runners under a five-minute pace, as the Butler senior ran 4:58 per mile.

“I felt a little bit of pressure before the race started knowing this was my last chance to win a state title in cross country, but I was also confident in my abilities and I had put in a lot of work to prepare myself for this moment,” Pajak said. “I am very satisfied and it’s a great accomplishment to win a state championship, but I am not satisfied yet.”

On to the next one: Pajak will turn his attention to the Foot Locker Cross Country Northeast Regional on Nov. 25 at Franklin Field in Boston, Mass.

The top 10 runners qualify for the national championship race Dec. 9 in San Diego.

Pajak finished seventh in last year’s regional race.

“It will definitely be a fast course, but I believe I can achieve the times needed to win the title and Boston and move on to the nationals,” Pajak said. “My speed has improved a lot as well as my form. It is important to maintain good form, especially when you are in a tough race. You also need good closing speed.”

A distance runner’s speed doesn’t compare to that of a sprinter, but in Pajak’s case it might. He runs the 400-meter dash in 52 seconds. To put that into perspective, his time in the 400, which is usually done in practice of part of the 4×400-meter relay, has him on the cusp of the boys Class 3A state-qualifying time of 50.09

“I’ll never compare myself to sprinters, but speed is very important, and it becomes even more important in college, especially at the Division I level,” Pajak said. “I will probably run the 5 or 10K in track, and the cross country races are 8Ks for most of the regular season, and they move to 10Ks for the championship races.”

Running with friends: Pajak does a great deal of his training by himself, but when he gets to Notre Dame, he will have plenty of teammates to push him in workouts, including several from Pennsylvania.

“CJ Singleton, who graduated from Butler, is already running at Notre Dame, and you have Drew Griffith, and even though he is not from this part of the state, Colin Whitaker will be there,” Pajak said. “I have done some training with Drew, so it will be exciting going to a place where they are all about running.”

Compiled by Jonathan Guth

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