Goshen's Hogan focused on running career

GOSHEN — Former Goshen High School athletic standout Drew Hogan is strictly a runner these days at Goshen College.

Hogan, who finished his basketball career for the RedHawks as the school’s third all-time leading scorer with 1,186 points, just had a few brief days of fun on the court in college.

“I don’t play much at all,” said Hogan about basketball. “I used to play intramural, but that got in the way of cross country nationals. But I definitely do miss it.”

The 2022 RedHawks graduate has continued his cross country and track career at the collegiate level.

Hogan is competing in the 1,500-meter run and 3,200-meter relay for outdoor track and the distance medley relay and 1,600-meter run for indoor track. The 8K is the running distance in college cross country.

Hogan recently received an honor, as he was chosen the Goshen College Athlete of the Week for April 22-29.

A great individual performance at the Grand Valley State University Extra Weekend Meet on April 25 helped Hogan earn that honor.

At that meet, Hogan set a school-record in the men’s 1,500 meters. He placed 20th out of 76 runners with a time of 3:54.58.

“I’m pretty happy with it,” Hogan said about setting a school-record. “But I was a half second off from getting the national standard and I’m bummed that I wasn’t able to hit that.”

Hogan has qualified for the outdoor nationals as part of the 3,200-meter relay team. Concord High School graduate Anthony Roberts is also on that relay.

That relay claimed a spot at the NAIA Nationals after placing second with a time of 7:41.36 at the Indiana Little State Championships on April 21 at Indiana Wesleyan University.

The Nationals will take place May 22 through May 24 at Indiana Wesleyan University.

“It’s a big transition from high school to college,” Hogan said about outdoor track. “You run a lot of miles and you keep building with workouts. The last two years while hammering out workouts I have seen improvements in my times. It’s fun to see the progression. The grind is awesome. I love it. It’s fun to see everybody on the the team improve.”

During the indoor track season, Hogan earned an All-American honor for the first time while being part of the distance medley relay team.

That accomplishment was gained after that relay finished sixth with a time of 10:10.49 at the NAIA Indoor Track and Field Championships on March 2 in Brookings, South Dakota.

“The indoor season was good,” Hogan said. “We had a great team for the DMR. It was nice to see our hard work pay off. I still wanted to see us do even better. But the group is young and we keep developing and improving.”

Hogan admitted that he prefers outdoor over indoor track.

“For indoor, there’s more laps and the air inside isn’t the best,” he said.

This week, Hogan and his teammates are competing at the Crossroads League Championships at Indiana Wesleyan.

Last year at the event, Hogan competed in the 3,200-meter relay, 1,600 meter relay and 1,500-meter run.

The 3,200 relay finished fourth with a time of 7:33.09, 1,600 relay placed sixth with a time of 3:22.63 and in the 1,500, Hogan finished eighth with a clocking of 3:57.49.

That time in the 3,200 relay was the fourth fastest time in the NAIA last year for that event. Even with that great showing, that relay wasn’t all-conference, as only the top three in each event make all-league. Unfortunately for Hogan and his teammates, the top four relays at that meet in the 3,200 were the four fastest times in the NAIA last year.

That great time at the league meet did qualify the 3,200 relay for the National Championships and that unit ended up 15th at that meet.

This past cross country season was challenging for Hogan.

“It didn’t go as planned for me,” Hogan said. “I had a good race at the Great Lakes Challenge (12th place, 25:07), but besides that I was inconsistent. My nationals and postseason weren’t the best.”

“I actually lost a shoe in the first 100 and 200 meters (at the NAIA Nationals). It was a very hilly course there in Vancouver, Washington. It was fun to run, but tough.”

Towards the end of the outdoor track season, Hogan can focus solely on outdoor track, as school at Goshen wrapped up last week.

“I changed my major from psychology to business,” Hogan said about his academics. “I like having a business major. My academics are going well.”

Hogan understands the preparation that goes with collegiate running and hopes even better times and finishes are in the future for him.

“In high school, you would do a little run and go home,” Hogan said. “For college, you run, lift and there’s recovery every day. You take supplements to help keep you hydrated. You have to treat it as full-time job and be responsible. I love it.”