Snavely fulfills dream of becoming a Buckeye

PEDRO — Nixon Snavely had two goals during his freshman year.

One, become an outstanding distance runner. And two, run in college for the Ohio State Buckeyes.

Check and check.

The Rock Hill Redmen senior distance runner capped a brilliant high school running career by signing a national letter-of-intent on Monday with the Ohio State Buckeyes for cross country and track.

Snavely spoke with Eastern Michigan, Youngstown State and Wright State as some of the main schools who came calling.

But Snavely knew all along where his heart was looking to go.

“If you had asked me my freshman year if I could have gone to any school in the country to run before any of this, and I would have said Ohio State,” said Snavely.

“So, the day they got in touch with me and were interested in me, I knew that’s where I wanted to be, regardless if I went on a visit or any of that stuff or everything else aside.”

Snavely then grinned and made his position perfectly clear.

“If they had me wash their cars every day while I was up there, I would gladly do it.”

As a distance runner, Snavely will run cross country in the fall, indoor track in the winter, and outdoor track in the spring.

The distances for college races will be longer than in high school, but Snavely said he has confidence he can adjust.

“For track in college, there’s the 1,500 and the indoor there’s the 3K and the 5K. In cross country, you run the 8K which is about five miles,” said Snavely.

“I’ve run a few charity events that were 10K, so I know what it feels like”

Currently Snavely said the most miles he has run during his training is 65.

“I think I’ll be ready. Obviously, they’ll prepare you for what you need to do. I’m just excited to work harder, smarter, feel better. I’m excited for all that,” said Snavely.

Although he knows the talent level will be a lot better at the Division 1 level, he welcomes the challenge.

“I can’t wait to — not only in races but to go to practice — and just get beat down because I believe that’s when you learn the most,” said Snavely.“Whenever you have people to look up to and you don’t have to do anything special, you just have to see what they do and follow that. Racing, I’ll just get drug along. These guys are better than you when you first come in. I’m excited to get better and have role models and work your way up. You’re starting all the way back down at the bottom.”

“Nixon is what you want as a coach. He works hard. He’s a leader. He pushes his teammates to be better. He wants to be better,” said Redmen cross country and track distance coach.

“He works so hard on his own. I’m talking to him about what he wants to do at practice. He has a great understanding of the sport. He’s all in on it. He loves it. I’m proud of him and I can’t wait to see what he does at Ohio State.”

Running began in the fifth grade for Snavely but he said he only ran a couple of times a week. He played basketball but gave it up after his freshman season to focus on his running, and he doesn’t prefer one sport over the other when it comes to track and cross country.

“I like them both. When cross country is over, I’m ready for track. When track is over, I’m ready for cross country,” said Snavely.

Snavely finished third in the Division 4 state cross country meet with a time of 15:42.66 which wasn’t far behind winner Bennett Lehman of Ansonia at 15:17.91 and Luke Snyder of Rittman who ran a 15:4;05.

Snavely finished first in the Southeast District meet with a time of 15:42.67 as well as taking the top spot in the regional meet with a 15:52.81 clocking.

Rock Hill won the Ohio Valley Conference cross country meet and Snavely won the individual title with a time of 16:00.61.

Snavely owns the OVC meet record in both the 1600 and 3200 meter runs in track. He has been a member of the Rock Hill OVC track championship teams the past three seasons.

Snavely said he initially wanted to major in business but the desire to coach has him leaning more toward exercise science.