Cross Country: Forsberg setting high standard for senior season

Hub harrier seeking to cut four minutes off personal record

Russell Hodges
Posted 1/5/21

Slashing four minutes off a personal-best time is no easy task for cross country runners. That’s what Hub harrier Peter Forsberg will attempt to achieve, however, after recently completing his second season with the Rochelle Township High School cross country program.

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Cross Country: Forsberg setting high standard for senior season

Hub harrier seeking to cut four minutes off personal record

Posted

Slashing four minutes off a personal-best time is no easy task for cross country runners. That’s what Hub harrier Peter Forsberg will attempt to achieve, however, after recently completing his second season with the Rochelle Township High School cross country program.

Forsberg first ran with the Hubs as a sophomore, beginning his season running times near the 25-minute range before ultimately cracking the 23-minute mark over his last five meets. While the COVID-19 pandemic drastically altered the team’s offseason training program, Forsberg entered his junior season even faster, running in the 22-minute range in Rochelle’s first meet of the 2020 season and clocking in at 21:40 during the Interstate 8 Conference Championships.

“The pandemic changed a lot of the regular structure of cross country,” Forsberg said. “We didn’t have any big meets and most of the meets were against only one or two schools. This wasn’t entirely bad, though, as it gave us a chance to see where we compared to other schools. I’d like to drop 3-to-4 minutes off my times from this season and it’d be great if our team can win more meets than we did this season. We’ll have to keep training hard to do that.”

Forsberg was among several upperclassmen who ran for the Hub cross country team this past season. With only two notable seniors departing from the program, Forsberg will have an opportunity to step up and earn a starting varsity role as one of Rochelle’s top runners next fall. Forsberg has the experience to compete, as he’s been running cross country since sixth grade.

“I like how the sport has team competition, but you’re also competing against yourself to continue getting better,” Forsberg said. “I thought I had a decent season, but the lack of an offseason training program made it difficult for me to progress. We did pretty well as a team and we even won a few meets at the start of the season. I thought I did well in staying consistent during each race. I’m training over the offseason to be faster for next year.”