Parker Wolfe runs to records, titles despite battle with COVID
GREENWOOD VILLAGE, Colo. (BVM) — It’s easy to understand why Parker Wolfe is considered the top boys cross country runner in the nation when simply looking at what the Cherry Creek High School senior accomplished last fall.
In September, Wolfe set a course and Colorado soil record by running a 5K time of 14 minutes and 30 seconds at the Heritage Distance Classic. He followed that up with another record-setting performance at the Class 5A state meet in October, winning the championship with a time of 15:10.50. The University of North Carolina commit then solidified his No. 1 ranking in November by running away with the RunningLane National Cross Country title in 14:26.
Given all that he’s achieved, it’s therefore not too surprising that Wolfe was named the 2020-21 Gatorade National Boys Cross Country Player of the Year. But there was a time last summer when he couldn’t have envisioned any of those accomplishments. Wolfe contracted symptomatic COVID-19 in July.
“It was rough,” Wolfe said. “It was super tough and I didn’t even know if I’d be able to come back to running this cross country season. I’d have up and down weeks trying to get back and recover from it. I never would’ve thought I’d be the national champion or the Gatorade National Player of the Year. It just makes it that much more special being able to go through all of those challenges and then still come out on top.”
Wolfe’s battle with the virus came at a crucial training time for a high school athlete in his sport, and despite being sick for multiple weeks, he attempted to train through it, even by going on midnight runs to avoid other people.
“It was a critical month,” Cherry Creek cross country head coach Ethan Dusto said. “It was the end of July into the beginning of August so that’s kind of when we’re peaking our distance mileage and we’re starting to transition into speed work and he missed all of that. That said, he trained a ton over the summer and it’s incredible to me how he held his fitness from doing all that work. It was a tough battle back, it was hard mentally, but he’s really strong mentally.”
Wolfe admits that his battle with COVID took a mental toll on him.
“It was more of a mental setback than physical,” Wolfe said. “My lungs took a hit and I had to take a good month to recover from that and then trying to run through it and trying to get back in shape was just a whole other beast. But the mental part of it, just trying to get back in shape and be happy with where I was, was really tough as well.”
Wolfe fought his way past the mental and physical hurdles to find the level of success that he’s capable of when there’s nothing holding him back, although there are still some lingering effects of the virus that have stuck with him. Wolfe said he has “lasting heart issues” and he takes aspirin to help manage inflammation of his arteries, a problem which has already led to one hospital stay. He also now has to use an inhaler before he runs.
“It’s definitely scary not knowing the long-term effects people are having,” Wolfe said. “I think that I’ll be fine in the future. Hopefully nothing comes up again, but you never know. It’s a new thing that no one really knows what’s going to happen, so it’s definitely on my mind, definitely still keeping an eye out for things, but hopefully, everything will be all right.”
Assuming good health, Dusto doesn’t see anything else holding Wolfe back from becoming an even more accomplished runner going forward at UNC.
“I can’t think of more than a couple of workouts where he finished that workout and he was totally gassed,” Dusto said. “I also think that his better races are longer distances. I’ve seen him run a five-mile tempo run at a five-minute pace and not have his heart rate spike above like 160 and so i think that the 10k is going to be his event. I think he’s got serious potential. If he stays healthy and continues to grow and he can make that extra jump forward, I think we’re going to see him at NCAA nationals as a freshman.”
