Despite a 25th place finish in last year’s Central Coast Section finals, Sobrato’s Ryan Corvese was never shy about his goals for his senior year: He wanted and expected to find himself in the state championship.
And on Nov. 10, Corvese did that and more, taking home the section championship and earning a berth in Saturday’s California Interscholastic Federation State Championship at Woodward Park in Fresno.
Now with his ultimate goal completed, Corvese isn’t done with high expectations.
“What I don’t want to do is do really well at CCS and not back it up at state,” Corvese said. “I would like to be at least in the top five. That would be a nice goal.”
And after improving his time by more than two minutes over the past two years, a top five finish isn’t out of the question for Corvese.
“I’m doing a lot of research on my competition,” he said. “I’m going into this really prepared. I don’t want to let anything get away from me.”
Hard work and preparation isn’t something new to Corvese, who has been a revelation for first-year head coach Tony King.
“He is really focused,” King said. “For an individual, he is totally focused and zeroed in. I’m really expecting him to have a good run at the state. Throughout my years of watching athletes, you see them and some of them are prepared and they are always giving their best shot. He is one of them. He has it all going for him.”
It’s been a surprising year for Corvese in the mind of those around the cross-country sport. He entered he season with a career-best time of 16:21. But by the time he ran the CCS championship, his time dropped to 15:27.
“It’s been a lot of ‘wow where did you come from’ by a lot of people,” Corvese said. “A couple of times people have said that they were seven seconds ahead of me last year and now I’m a minute ahead of them. I’ve just been continuing to work. Mainly, I have faith in my training. If you don’t have faith in your training you’re not going to get anywhere.”
But it’s been nearly a year since Corvese realized he had potential to go to the state championship, he said.
That realization started during last year’s track and field season.
“I finally had my breakthrough performance at Stanford,” he said. “That was when I felt like I really could compete. I really used that. I want to be able to be in the race and compete. And defeat a lot of the top people in the state.”
And everything has been dramatically different than the 2011 season that saw a coaching change, he said.
“I wasn’t even close to making it this far last year,” he said. “It wasn’t a near miss or anything. This year compared to last year, the stars are more in aliment. Training has been more focused and I have more control with my training.”
And its given him an opportunity to make an name for himself this fall. And that’s something he has taken full advantage of.
“State is such a big window of opportunity because there are so many college coaches there,” he said. “There are going to be a ton of colleges there and there is going to be thousands of people. It’s going to be such a thrill with so much energy at that race. It’s just going to be really exciting. It’s a big deal and I’m excited for it. I’m ready for the big race and putting my name up there.”
King doesn’t expect Corvese to do any less.
“He is going to leave nothing on the table,” King said. “I think he is going to totally feel good of what he has done. He is going to give everything he has. Ryan Corvese is going to feel good about what he displays out there for himself.”
The Division III race is scheduled for 12:50 p.m. Saturday in Fresno.
