Rocky Hansen ’23 has an innate ability to tune out the noise on race days.
Times, rankings, and outside expectations are just inanimate things for others to concern themselves with as Rocky sticks to a dogged personal philosophy of “race hard, run hard.”
The words might sound simple, but the execution is not. And no one has done it better in state history than the Christ School senior.
Rocky has been announced as the Gatorade Player of the Year for North Carolina’s 2022 cross country season, following up on the same award he received from the sports drink company for last year’s track season.
“Rocky Hansen authored the most impressive season in North Carolina history, producing five course records and six meet records in a continual show of domination,” said Rich Gonzalez, the editor of PrepCalTrack.
“His six sub-15:00 5K performances in a single season is unprecedented for a North Carolina prep.”
Indeed, Rocky ran the fastest 5K (3.1 miles) in state history (14 minutes, 20.90) at the Oct. 1 Alexander/ASICS Invitational in Fairburn, Ga, and led Christ School to back-to-back NCISAA 4-A championships with his second consecutive individual win at the state meet.
November saw him extend an undefeated senior season by winning the Champ Sports South Regional in Charlotte, something that only three other boys from North Carolina have accomplished since 1979. His time of 14:40.06 seconds is the best ever for a Tar Heel state runner in the regional.
Rocky concluded his season with an All-American performance (11th place) at the Champ Sports national meet in San Diego, where he was the only runner to really threaten race-winner Kole Mathison of Indiana.
Rocky has signed to run collegiately for Wake Forest and has been coached his entire time at Christ School by Randy Ashley.
“I had a feeling coming out of the gates at our first meet (the Eye-Opener in Spartanburg on Sept. 3) that he was going to do something special,” Coach Ashley said.
“It’s obviously the greatest season by a male in North Carolina history. He’s put the work in, and he takes no shortcuts. Him winning this award is just validation of his season. He was clearly leaps and bounds the best kid in the state. It’s well-deserved and I really appreciate Gatorade for this special program and for recognizing kids like Rocky who are out there working hard.”
Other than Rocky’s wins in cross country and track, Christ School has only had one other Gatorade state player of the year – Marshall Plumlee ’11 in basketball.