Waynesburg University’s men’s cross country team has a lot of talent overall, but there is one individual that has lead the team through the first three meets. Mac Colomb is a freshman nursing major that has a background leading up to his collegiate career at Waynesburg that may be different than most.

Colomb is a former high school graduate from Archbishop Curley High School in Baltimore City, Maryland. Originally in middle school and his earlier years in high school, Colomb never considered running to be cross country.

“I started my running career my freshman year of high school because I played soccer up until fifth grade and I stopped,” said Colomb. “My high school was really good, so I said no [to soccer]. So I just quit that and I knew that cross country did not make any cuts so I went to cross country.”

When Colomb made up his mind to go to cross country his freshman year, there was one leader from his high school that inspired him to be the best he could be. Matt Boldin gave Colomb the advice to be the best you can be in anything you do because it will reflect in your times of running.

This inspiring message from Boldin helped Colomb be successful in his first two years of his high school campaign. It continued to shine throughout his high school career, which opened the eyes of Waynesburg’s head cross country coach, Chris Hardie, when seeing his performance at a championship race during his junior year of high school.

Hardie was so impressed with Colomb’s performance that he reached out to him at the meet and stayed in contact with him. Throughout the recruiting process, Hardie felt that Colomb was one of the best fits in recent years since recent graduate Brendan Keany.

“Mac is a perfect fit in the recruiting process, and I matched up a bunch of variables so they have to hit some criteria,” said Hardie. “He’s fast, he’s talented, a high character guy and you can tell that he has been raised by some great parents.”

After seeing Colomb’s performance, Hardie stayed in contact with him asking about his performances and how practice was going on a weekly basis.

Going the extra mile like Hardie did made Colomb feel comfortable and that Waynesburg would be the best choice for him to attend college.

“I actually chose to come to Waynesburg because of Hardie and the nursing program here is fantastic,” said Colomb. “I was looking at one other school, and basically coach Hardie’s willingness to communicate with me and just texting me to see how I was doing meant a lot to me.”

Throughout the early stages of Colomb’s collegiate career, he received his first collegiate honor – PAC Rookie of the Week.

One thing to keep an eye on throughout the rest of this season, according to Hardie, is Colomb’s strategy and leadership presence.

“He is someone that really pushes the pace, he is really aggressive at practice and you do not see that from a lot of freshmen,” said Hardie. “He does not mind being the front runner at practice and overall so far he is a good leader.”

Hardie said the confidence level of Colomb and the rest of the freshmen is quite remarkable. Five out of the top seven runners so far have been freshmen.

“The confidence level is there when 12 out of your top 15 are freshmen. There has to be a little bit of swag at the practices and at the meets,” said Hardie. “Overall, they want to help the team to do better and they do not focus on themselves.”

The Yellow Jacket cross country team is back in action on Saturday, Sept. 30, in Newville, Pennsylvania. The Dickinson Long-Short Invitational is scheduled to start at 10:30 a.m. at Big Spring High School.