Among the Greats

Except the fall of his freshman year, Minster's Alex Albers has been to state in track and cross country every chance he's had.

Now, as his senior year winds down, he's putting the finishing touches on one of the greatest running careers in school history.

"If he's not the best we've ever had in distance," Wildcats coach Larry Topp said, "he's equal to the best we've ever had."

Growing up, Albers had his sights on football and basketball, but Topp had an eye on him as early as fifth grade, when Alex's sister Kaitlyn ran cross country for the Wildcats. Alex would show up to the meets and join in some of the elementary runs.

"There was a Watcke boy (Daniel Watcke) whose sister also ran for us, and they were probably two of the best elementary runners I'd ever seen before," Topp said. "… You could tell way back then, when he was in fifth and sixth grade running those meets and coming in first or second with that other young man that I just mentioned, that he was going to be something special."

Albers got a shot at quarterback for the Wildcats' seventh-grade team and turned in an impressive season. In the spring, he ran distance events in track, and Topp coaxed him into giving a season to cross country.

"I played football my seventh-grade year and I actually really loved it, so it was super, super hard for me to go to cross country as an eighth-grader," Albers said. "… I figured I'd give it a shot for my eighth-grade year in cross country, and it went unbelievably well. It's really taken off from there."

In his freshman year, Albers made it to the cross country regionals, where he came in 75th. In the spring, he made it to state in the 3,200, where he came in 11th, and ran the anchor leg of the 4x800.

As a sophomore, he repeated as Midwest Athletic Conference cross country champion, a title he kept all four years, before jumping all the way to 10th in the state tournament.

"I was pretty successful from a young age, and in cross country I was able to win MAC all four years, which is pretty impressive to put on a resume," he said, "but I'm really proud of that just for the sense of, those early years, freshman and sophomore years, not letting my nerves get the best of me."

Coming back after the cancellation of the 2020 spring season due to the pandemic, he and the rest of the Wildcats came to realize that they had the chance to do something special.

"We lost to a really good Columbus Grove squad around midseason, and that's kind of when we started to do a little bit of looking ahead to the postseason," Albers said. "With the type of talent that we had, who we could all get to state, I think we started to see it as a real possibility."

Albers ran the 4x800 on the first day, then came back for the 1,600 on the second day. He got a slow start and had to pass most of the field, but ultimately came in fifth and shattered his PR.

According to Topp, Albers was feeling leg-weary coming off the podium when he heard that Joesph Slonkosky had placed fourth in the 300 hurdles.

"Because he understands team and gets it… he realized, we've got a chance to win this," Topp said. "He was just getting ready to tell his buddy who finished the 1,600 with him that he couldn't go again, but as soon as he heard that, he cleared that all out of his head and started getting ready for the 800."

Albers came out faster in the 800, chasing down the leaders for a third-place finish. Then his day was done, and he watched Brady Hoelscher, Nathan Droesch, Slonkosky and Bryan Falk win the 4x400 as the Wildcats slipped past McDonald for the team title.

"Last year, competing for such a bigger purpose than yourself, it brought me out of (myself)," Albers said. "The time that I was able to drop at state wasn't really for myself, it was for my team, the team needed me. Really that's kind of what opened my eyes to, this isn't really an individual sport, you've got 60 other guys depending on you."

Topp said having Albers on the team is like having another coach beside him.

"There's always introverts on the team, and he'll sit down with them," Topp said. "Or I might even say, 'Hey, you need to talk to so-and-so, they need to know they're doing well, that they can really help us out if they continue to work hard.' Just somebody like him going to talk to them really makes a big difference.

"Those are subtle ways, there are others. There's a guy in his class, a senior, who was okay with just doing mediocre, and (Albers) kind of drug him into the gym to do lifting together, and he's made him into something special. So there's the normal things you think about, talking to the young guys, and when I give you one example, there's probably 15 examples."

Albers struggled with back injuries through his senior cross country season, but rallied to win the MAC title by 22 seconds over Marion Local's Noah Budde as the Wildcats took five of the top 10 spots.

Albers took pride in being joined by sophomores Jack Grieshop, who finished sixth in the MAC, and Ryan Halpin, who finished ninth, after convincing them to go out for cross country years earlier.

"They're a few years younger than me, and I talked to them and was like, 'I think you guys should do cross country,' and they gave it a shot and now they're my teammates," Albers said. "They're amazing, amazing runners, they're really young and they have a bunch of room to grow and improve.

"That gives me chills, just talking about it."

Albers returned to the state championship and went up to sixth in cross country, then geared up for a last turn on the track. Although Topp had moved him off the 3,200 so he could run more events, the coach gave him a day to just run that one event against Hayden Schmidt of Anna, and both reset school records. Schmidt took first, but Albers broke Dane Schubert's school record of 34 years with a time of 9:36.30.

He also holds the school record in the 5K and is third in the 800, 0.56 seconds off the record, and third in the 1,600 with four seconds between himself and the top, with a few more weeks to improve his times before heading to Findlay to run on the Division II level.

"I know they're trying to build a great program there, trying to build a great team," Albers said. "Running for a team purpose last year made me fall in love with the sport that much more, and it confirmed my interest in running in college."

In the meantime, he has a chance to build on his place in Minster history.

"Last year's team, we talked about (a state title) a lot throughout the season and visualized it a lot throughout the season," Albers said. "We didn't avoid the topic whatsoever. We just talked about what we could do to win a state championship, and so I think the big thing this year is to get the team to be comfortable talking about what it takes, and at the same time giving everyone confidence that we can actually do it."