Junior Emma Hoffman has been racing into the record books since she entered high school, but has hit high speed over the last year. She broke, and continues to hold the high school girls cross country school record, but that isn’t what’s most impressive. It’s that her current record is one minute faster than the record she broke. The record is now 17:22; she’s the first female runner at Otsego to break the 18-minute mark.

“Emma is probably the most driven, hard working young lady I’ve ever coached. She is continually looking for ways to make herself and those around her better,” says coach Steve Long. “But what is equally important to her is having fun and making sure her teammates are having fun as well.” 

This season, she placed 1st in every race in the regular season, including invitationals. She also placed 1st at the Wolverine Conference meet and Regionals. Finally, she placed 2nd at state against another undefeated D2 runner. She was still more than 30 seconds ahead of the 3rd place runner. “The reason I have been able to be so successful is from the training from my Coach, as well as the strength that God gives for every race,” Emma says.

She just competed in the Nike Cross Regionals and had a podium finish, placing 12th out of 287 runners from Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Illinois and Missouri in a race she had to qualify for; there were actually 1237 runners total at this event. “It is quite impressive,” explains Long, “probably one of the most impressive things an Otsego cross country kid has ever done as an individual.” This finish likely puts her in the top 50 runners in the country. She has one more race, the Footlocker Nationals on November 30th in Kenosha, WI.

She still has indoor and outdoor track yet this year, and her senior year, so she’s not done yet. “I really want to go for that state title as an individual. For the team, we have so many talented girls coming up which is super exciting. I obviously have a lot of time goals but those are secondary to the goals of just having fun and being the best leader I can for the younger girls next year.”