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.

Winners on the field, winners off it.

Continued excellence across the board for Christ School athletics is being reflected in recruiting. For the third time in five years, a senior class will include 20 or more boys who have committed or signed to play college sports.

Nearly one-fourth of Christ School’s Class of 2023 was seated at a long row of tables Monday morning with college paraphernalia spread all around.

An extraordinary year for Greenie athletics called for the vast space of Mebane Field House to hold a special all-school Assembly.

SAN DIEGO - Rocky Hansen ‘23 ran well enough to earn All-American status Saturday at the Champ Sports national cross country meet.

Rocky challenged for the lead for the majority of the race and placed 11th with a time of 15:22 flat.

North Carolina’s history in the Champs Sports national meet is not great. A boy from the Tar Heel state has never managed to place higher than fourth in what most runners consider the Super Bowl of high school cross country, an event which has taken place since 1979.

A Greenie has a real chance to alter those fortunes.

The best by a mile? Correction: North Carolina's best by 3.1 miles.

No further analytics or debate are necessary. Christ School cross country is the No. 1 team in the season’s final statewide rankings from HighSchoolOT and the Greenies had four of their top-seven runners named to the all-state team. 

CHARLOTTE - Rocky Hansen ’23 wore the usual grimace on his face Saturday as he gutted out the last bit of the Champs Sports South Regional.

Underneath the pained expression, the Greenie was already letting his mind drift to San Diego. 

No matter the sport, there is always a curiosity as to how state champions would stack up against one another. Who really is the best overall team, regardless of size or classification?

The answer in North Carolina cross country this season is Christ School.

PLEASANT GARDENS – Eyob Gill ’24 had just run the race of his life. All he could think about is how it affected the bigger picture for Christ School cross country.

“I knew my teammates were hurting. I had to hurt with them, too. I had to keep going,” Eyob said.

Indeed, the Greenies hurt together as a team and won in glorious unison Friday at Hagan-Stone Park.  

SWANNANOA - Asheville Christian Academy enlisted a staff member to drive around a cart Wednesday afternoon, leading the race through its grass and wooded cross country course.  

A motorized vehicle was the only thing outrunning Christ School at the Carolinas Athletic Association meet.  

Continued excellence in the classroom and on the playing field has made Christ School one of the leading athletic programs in the NCISAA. 

New for this year, the Athletic Department will be recognizing boys who set the standard for what it means to be a Greenie student-athlete with All-Academic teams for the Fall, Winter, and Spring sports seasons.  

Friday was set up to be a dress rehearsal of sorts for Christ School cross country.

The Greenies aced it.

Christ School’s triple-loop course was manicured to perfection and Wednesday’s weather conditions made for an idyllic October afternoon.

Most importantly, six Greenies went out the right way on Senior Day.

Rocky Hansen ’23 could never take another step and still be considered the greatest of all time in North Carolina high school distance running.

Five state records are as conclusive as it gets. 

The Christ School senior attained record No. 5 Saturday, winning the Alexander/ASICS Invitational cross country meet in Fairburn, Ga., with a time of 14 minutes, 20.90 seconds.

Look past the name. The WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, N.C., has become one of the state’s real proving grounds for cross country.

And Christ School runners proved themselves Saturday morning.

Add another first to the ever-growing list for Rocky Hansen ’23.

The Wake Forest University recruit became the first runner in Christ School history to break 15 minutes in a 5-kilometer (3.1 miles) race Saturday in Spartanburg, S.C. His winning time of 14 minutes, 57.60 seconds was a course record by an astonishing 27 seconds for the 38th annual Eye-Opener at Milliken Research Center.

Monday was a final tune-up that could not have gone much better for Christ School cross country.

Greenie runners took the top-eight positions in the on-campus 2-mile Madness meet, led by individual winner Rocky Hansen ’23 (9 minutes, 44.99 seconds).

Christ School cross country runners had a magical moment last October, where the Greenies stood in the Atlantic Ocean with waves lapping at their feet as they held the first state championship trophy in school history.

After properly celebrating their win in Wilmington, then came a party back at the Head of School’s house with commemorative t-shirts, cake, and balloons. And finally, the rings. 

Who could blame everyone for wanting to do it all over again?

Seniors from the Class of 2022 are only five days away from becoming alumni of Christ School.

But first, Jackson Burch ’22, Jacob Halfacre ’22, Sam White ’22, and Trey Wagner ’22 had a big item to mark off their graduation week checklist.

Looking back, the N.C. Independent Schools Athletic Association 4-A state meet was a microcosm of the season for Christ School cross country.

Rocky Hansen ‘23, Dawson Reeves ‘24, and Jackson Burch ‘22 pushed one another every day in practice and races to run as far and as fast as they possibly could.