From the beginning of his running career, Ryan Hill had drive and desire.
When he was in eighth grade, his class visited Hickory High to let students see their future surroundings.
They eventually made their way to the gym where track records were displayed.
Hill looked at the records and singled out the ones he wanted by his senior year.
He\'s two years ahead of schedule.
Hill enters his junior year, not only as Hickory High\'s record-holder for 3.1 miles in cross country (15 minutes, 24 seconds) and 3,200 meters in track (9:16.50), but he\'s one of the nation\'s top cross-country runners and the fifth-best returning runner in the Southeast.
\"When he emerged last year, I don\'t know if people knew him,\" said coach Bob Sloop. \"But they definitely know him this year. ... I just do not know what to expect this year ... for a sophomore, I haven\'t seen anybody do that.\"
Breaking the records didn\'t surprise Hill, but doing it last year did.
\"I had no idea that I was capable of that,\" Hill said of his 15:24 performance at McAlpine Park in Charlotte in November at the Foot Locker South Regional. He was 15th overall, five places from a trip to nationals. \"So I was actually looking for big things in track.\"
He surprised himself in track, as well.
\"I never thought I\'d run 9:16,\" he added of his performance, ranked second overall in North Carolina last year.
He ended his sophomore year with two N.C. 3A titles: one in cross country and one in track for the 3,200 meters.
This summer in Baltimore, he won a USA Track and Field Junior Olympic national title in the 3,000 meters.
It was a huge jump from where his cross-country season began last Aug. 27 at the WNC Carnival in Hendersonville.
He finished 19th in 16:50.8, more than 1:20 slower than the winner.
He lauded Sloop as the reason for his improvement. Sloop, however, noted it was a combination of Hill\'s talent, hard work, desire and vision for goal-setting.
\"You think, as a coach, this kid has the talent but he doesn\'t have the desire, or he has the work ethic, but not the talent,\" Sloop said of runners he\'s coached. \"But then you get the ones who have both, and that\'s why they\'re champions. They do what other people won\'t do or other people can\'t do.\"