Brockport men’s cross country runner Jonathan Zavala broke his own school record in the men’s 8k at the Empire 8 championships last Saturday. Zavala’s record-breaking time of 24 minutes and 18 seconds earned him third place in the race. 

“With the passing of my great grandmother before this, I wasn’t in the greatest headspace,” Zavala said. “But I had the support of all of my friends to help elevate my mental health and have me prepared.” 

Breaking records is just something that comes naturally to Zavala, whose sole plan coming into the race was simply to win. 

“Setting fast times is the last thing on my mind,” Zavala said. “I went out with a plan to lead the race for as long as possible and score as few points as possible so that the team could perform well.” 

As a team, Brockport cross country came in second place overall with 50 points in the meet. Zavala finished less than 10 seconds behind Ryan Hagan of SUNY Geneseo, who took home first place. Charlie Alekson and Patrick Klinger both ran sub-25-minute times for Brockport, earning them 10th and 11th place respectively. 

“Individuality in the sport is never something to look into,” Zavala said. “But if I had to have an individualistic look, being on my A-game for the race was critical in the team’s success. My own individual performance correlates to how the team performs against everyone.” 

Looking forward to Saturday Nov. 16, Zavala will be competing in the NCAA Regionals at Fredonia State, where he already has goals in mind. 

“Individually I want to qualify for the national meet, which I have done before,” Zavala said. “For the team, if we can beat any teams the chances of us going are elevated.” 

Zavala finished in ninth place at last year’s regionals with a time of 24 minutes and 46 seconds. With him feeling as good physically as he has ever felt, he’s hoping to improve on that time, and qualify for the national meet once again.