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New Bremen's Zach Wiedeman, center, signed a national letter of intent Wednesday to run track and cross country at Findlay. With him are his sister Brianna and his mother Karla.
NEW BREMEN - New Bremen senior Zach Wiedeman signed a national letter of intent Wednesday to run track and cross country at the University of Findlay.
Wiedeman, who plans to major in exercise science and minor in business, said in addition to a strong exercise science program, the close-knit team dynamic with the Oilers was a key factor.
"Not all other places are like that," he said. "You go there and everyone's with each other all day. Even though they just have practice once a day, they're all eating lunch together, they hang out together outside of that. That's something I really looked into and looked forward to, because I didn't want to just see my teammates in practice and that's it.
"All the guys at my team here, at Bremen, we all hang out together outside practice too," he added. "We're all good friends."
New Bremen coach Jason Barhorst gave Wiedeman a healthy share of the credit for creating that atmosphere with the Cardinals.
"He's willing to go out and help pace somebody else who's still finishing up the interval because they're a lot further behind, or he's just encouraging people," Barhorst said. "Putting his hand on their shoulders, saying, 'You can do this too,' or, 'You're faster than me when I was a freshman!' That's probably one of his go-to phrases.
"He's super encouraging to everybody on the team, and I think the team really embraces that."
Wiedeman follows in the footsteps of several other MAC athletes to join the Oilers for track and/or cross country, including Minster's Alex Albers and Cameo Cedarleaf, Marion Local's Nate Buschur and St. Henry's Brandon Keller.
He said Albers in particular has been helping him through the process.
"He's been a big help," Wiedeman said. "When I visited there, he walked me around campus, showed me around."
In addition, Wiedeman said that going to Findlay gives him the chance to team up with other competitors from around the area, like Asher Long from Covington and Luke Ellerbrock from Columbus Grove.
Barhorst, too, noted that Wiedeman's encouragement extends to his competitors.
"At Versailles, they lined up all the runners for the mile, and then they had an issue with the timing system and called them all off the track," Barhorst said. "Zach went around talking to all the competitors that he was just about to line up and race. That was just Zach being Zach. He's going to try to beat you, but he's also the friendliest guy out there to you."
Wiedeman plans to compete in cross country and both indoor and outdoor track. For track, he expects to continue in the same events - 800, 1,600, and 3,200 as well as some relays - with the opportunity to branch out.
"There's a bunch of different races you can get into," he said. "Even steeplechase. I thought that was pretty cool. Maybe I'll try that out, but we'll see."
Wiedeman won the Midwest Athletic Conference cross country meet, then ran second in districts and fourth at regionals before taking 16th overall in his second trip to the Division III state meet in November.
A year after winning their first MAC title since 2008, the Cardinals made their first state trip as a team since 2009 and placed sixth.
"I think my junior year, when we won MAC as a team, that was awesome," he said. "We worked really hard all year as a team for that. A lot of the guys last year that were seniors when I was a junior, I was really close friends with them. And this year when we went to state and got sixth at state, that was huge. All season long, we weren't supposed to get ranked. Then we showed up, we knew we were capable of it, and we ran really well."
Last spring, the Cardinals' 4x800-meter relay team went to state and placed 11th, while Wiedeman placed seventh at regionals in the 1,600.
With his senior track season still on tap, he's hoping to help the 4x800 move up into the top five at state and qualify as an individual in the 1,600 and the 3,200.
"He's only getting faster, too," Barhorst said. "I think he can go out with a good showing, that's for sure."
