By Ken Hansard
In high school sports, becoming the senior member of the group activity you have grown up in is inevitable and is a rite of passage, but it does not come without its challenges. Many of the friends that you have made along the way, the people who helped you gain your love of the sport, have graduated. Those people who taught you the culture, who guided you in your training, who set the bar and pushed you to be your best? All moved on, leaving you with the challenge of being “that guy.” Ryder Friend, a senior who runs cross country for the Lamar High Tigers, is about to become “that guy,” and he is fully ready to embrace that challenge. “I always had my older teammates to push me in years past. Now I’m the only senior on the boys’ team, and I’m the number one runner, so I feel I have a pretty big role this year as a leader. We’ve had great leadership from the seniors in years past. Now, I plan to provide the same support for the younger guys that teammates have given me in the past.”
The Tigers, who won the Big 8 Conference last season, will have to replace several standouts from that team. Friend seems like a good person to lead that charge. Ryder is coming off a junior campaign that saw him place fifth at Conference, seventh at Districts (and named first-team All-District), and in the top fifty for Class 3 State. Now, as a senior who wants to leave his mark on the program, he is gunning for much more. ‘I feel like I really improved last year, and I can’t wait to see what I can do this year. Making First-Team All- District was incredible and something I couldn’t have imagined before last year. I am aiming for around a 17-minute 5k this year. I’d like to win several races – maybe even conference.”
Ryder has this year’s conference meet circled on his calendar, because it is being run on his home course in Lamar, “I have some really great friends and family who come out to cheer me on at home meets, and it always makes me go faster.”
When he is not running cross country, Ryder also participates in archery, track, and SkillsUSA through the Lamar Technical and Career Center. Last season, he was part of the Tigers’ 4×800 team that placed first at Sectionals. He is strong academically also, sporting a 3.7 G.P.A. He scored a 25 on the ACT.
Ryder has been studying in the Precision Machine and Tooling program at the Lamar Technical and Career Center and would like to pursue a degree related to the trade – possibly mechanical engineering. After graduation, his tentative plan is to attend Ozark Technical Center and then transfer to finish his degree. Given the right scholarship opportunities, he would definitely consider the option to continue to run collegiately.
