Owen Franck '24 Recruiting Profile

As a young child my parents had signed me up in many different public running events from a mile to a 10k. I never ran notably fast but I enjoyed the competition and facing off with friends and family. At my middle school, MBMS, we had runday every Thursday. Everyone seemed to despise runday, but I loved it. We would run laps around the park, and for each lap you did in the 20 minutes, you'd get one point. In 6th grade I could only muster 4 laps in 20 minutes, but being able to run 4 laps still made me one of the top guys in my class which led me to joining the MBMS cross country team. I really enjoyed the environment and people, but I didn’t yet love the running part. In 7th grade I got a little bit more fit and was able to run a 5 on runday. This finally gave me attention from my classmates which fueled me to get a 6. Me and my friend aswell as current teamate Luke Graham had a friendly competition on who could get the 6 that nobody seemed to be able to run. Every week I was around 400m from getting the 6 before time would run out all the way up until late 2nd semester of 8th grade right before covid hit when I ran harder than I ever had and managed a 6. I had finally run the impossible number and beat my friend Luke to it.  

This led me to deciding that I would run for the highschool cross country team. Though all my friends decided to do lacrosse, I stuck with running. I hated it at first. I found myself never going to practice all of the first semester of freshman year  as I wasn’t motivated to. I ran a couple of xc races but I wasn’t even the top 3 best freshman on the team and I just thought I wasn’t good. My friend Luke Graham would beat me in these races by sometimes well over a minute and there was even another freshman beating him by over 2 minutes. I felt unmotivated to run all up until late April of 2021 when covid was starting to clear out and I ran my first track race ever, where I ran 5:13 in the 1600 placing third overall, and I was the best freshman in the race. After this I realized how close I was to breaking 5 minutes and decided I would devote as much time as I could in the next 2 weeks to break the 5 minute barrier. I found my opportunity at another duel meet but the conditions were far from perfect. The first lap went by and I just stood behind the leaders until I lost my patience and just went to the front and never looked back. I made a massive surge on the third lap, gapping everyone by almost 100 meters. Everyone was screaming at me to slow down, but I felt good and kept surging. I died pretty hard the last lap but I won with a time of 4:59 on the dot. This only motivated me more as I qualified in the frosh soph invite in my biggest meet of the year, the Southbay Meet of Champs 2021. I trained hard the next 2 weeks. I finally now had the attention from the varsity boys on my team and it felt great being more connected to everyone. It was soon raceday. My friend/teammate Luke ran in the 2nd fastest heat and ended up running 4:58. The pressure was on. My race came and went and I ended up running 4:51, ranking me 7th in bay league for underclassmen in the mile. Now I had the goal of being on the podium at bay league finals for the 1600. The race came quickly and I knew I was fit. It came down to the final 200 for that third place spot and I kicked harder than I ever had before. With my teammates, Parker and Kia, going 1 and 2, we successfully succeeded in sweeping the frosh soph bay league podium, as well as running a new PR of 4:49. I proved this season that I was a promising talent and varsity potential for the upcoming cross season. 

The summer training came and went, and I worked like crazy. Running was my #1 priority and I was chasing that varsity spot. My workouts got better and better and it was now clear I had potential to be in the top 7 and possibly break a couple of the sophomore records. The first record I broke was before the season on a trail we run in mammoth called the Duck Lake pass, which is just 3.4 miles of straight hell. It has well recorded times from past Mira Costa runners and people running the segment on strava. I ended up being our 2nd guy on the hill climb and running an 8th all time on that course being by far the fastest sophomore ever. The first race soon came and went and even though the race wasn’t good, I still ended up being our 5th guy, achieving my goal. Even with mediocre races for ⅓ of my season I held my varsity spot but was only really our 5th or 6th guy. Bay League meet 1 came on the infamous PV course and even though it was my first time running it, I finally had a breakout race and was only 2 seconds off the sophomore record on the course and was our 4th guy and only 20 seconds away from our #1 guy. The next weekend was the Mt sac invite and I had my eyes set on maybe going under 16:10 there. I had one of my best races ever, running 15:51 being only 15 seconds off our #1 as well as running the 2nd fastest sophomore time for Costa. It was now the prep for the Postseason but injury was creeping in. This injury forced me to really deescalate my training but I pretty much just ran through it and it showed in my races. Our team still did amazing and I was still a regular scorer for our podium at state and our CIF championship. I took some time off after the season and it was back to training for track now fresh and uninjured. I was able to train for 5 weeks before a quad injury overcame me and I had to take some time off. I wasn’t taking enough time off and it lingered up until my first race where I ran terribly. I knew I needed more time off so I took over a week off. There was a big meet, The Rising Stars Mile, that I really wanted to qualify for, but the injury was holding me back. I finally got back and my workouts didn’t show it at all but I knew I was fit. I raced some light Frosh Soph races and won both at the Redondo Nike Invite, which was the confidence I needed. My coach was allowing my teammate Parker to have a mile race, paced for sub 4:30, for him to reach the qualifying time for the Rising Star Mile, but he wouldn’t allow me to be in the race, as he didn’t think I was fit enough to run under 4:30. This stayed in my head and kind of pissed me off. I wanted to prove them wrong. Even with a stress fracture now creeping up on me I was determined. Apu Meet of champs was the next weekend and I barely qualified for the Frosh Soph invite. The race came and I was determined to make a statement. No one expected me to be upfront in the race, not even my coach, but I was and I got a little antsy the last lap and took the lead then later felt the pain of that, but still ended up running 4:26 a 3rd all time sophomore 1600, 0.00003 seconds behind my teammate. Injuries were really starting to take over my body but I just wanted to keep training and racing which led to my downfall. I did not end my season well. I ended up having a stress fracture in my Ischial Tuberosity and had to take 3 months off. 

Injuries would become my biggest obstacle. I got back for the last third of the summer and was running well and even had one good race until I suddenly was overcome by IT band syndrome, in early September and I just recently started running again. I’m working with my PT to fix the issues with my legs but I'm determined to heal and get back on the training horse. I want to prove my place in this sport and won’t let injuries stop me. I’m determined to run faster and want to prove that I really am a force to be reckoned with. I want to go to the state meet. I want a league title, and I’m willing to work my way to get there.