More than a runner

Just calling Wolhan Ovalle a great cross country runner doesn’t give him justice.

Until he was 14 years old, Ovalle was raised in Guatemala. His family then moved to the Northern Californian town of Vacaville, which is between San Francisco and Sacramento.

Ovalle didn’t know a lick of English, but it didn’t take him long to pick up the language.

“It took me about three months,” Ovalle said. “The hardest thing was grammar. I didn’t get the hang of that until I was freshman in high school.”

But it didn’t take long for Ovalle to master grammar, and by his junior year in high school, he was already taking honors English classes.

While Ovalle was working hard in the classroom, he was also beating his competition on the cross country course.

“They don’t have cross country in Guatemala, so I wasn’t sure what it was at first,” Ovalle said. “I had some friends tell me what it was and I started training the summer after my freshman year. I have loved it ever since.”

Ovalle quickly became one of the top cross country runners in the area and received scholarship offers from UCSB and LBSU.

“I liked the coaching staff that was here at the time so I chose to go to Long Beach. I definitely made the right decision. I really like it here,” Ovalle said.

In his four years at LBSU, this season has been Ovalle’s healthiest and best.

In the Big West Championships on Oct. 28, Ovalle was the top runner for the LBSU men’s team, finishing in 21st place.

This Saturday, Ovalle and the rest of the men’s and women’s cross country teams will head to the Pacific Northwest to compete in the NCAA Regional at Blue Lake Park in Portland, Ore.

“I’m not tired at all, I feel strong and I ran a good time at this same course when I was a freshman. The course is pretty flat with only a few hills so I’m looking to run a good time,” Ovalle said.

LBSU’s cross country teams will be without Nicole Blalock and Jason Bruton for the NCAA Regionals.

The two were arrested on campus after they were allegedly exploding dry-ice in Parking Structure 2. The team announced that Blalock and Bruton will not compete this weekend due to violation of team policies.

When asked if the team will be affected from the loss of his teammates, Ovalle had a simple and clear answer.

“No,” Ovalle said. “We are focused right now and we still don’t know the details of what happened. We will deal with it as a team later.”