Rochester’s Calloway, Ochoa team up to win inaugural Hokum Karem

Winamac’s Fredel, Pierzchalski win boys race

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

The Rochester girls cross-country team won the Rochester Hokum Karem at Rochester City Park Saturday. From left – Trinity Baine, Brooklyn Chandler, Vivian Miller, Daniela Ochoa, Allyson Calloway, Ainsley Horvath, Adison Hayes, Kady Bradley, Alayna Jones

Just before the start of his first meet as coach, an excited Rochester cross-country coach Troy Pryor went over to each of his girls runners prior to the inaugural Rochester Hokum Karem at City Park Saturday to hug and encourage them.

A large majority appreciated the well wishes, but Daniela Ochoa was not one of them.

“Don’t touch me,” she quipped. “I’ll sue.”

In addition to lightening the mood, Ochoa made her own persuasive argument that she is more than ready for the big time as a freshman by teaming up with senior Allyson Calloway to win the Hokum Karem in 39:12 and helping lead Rochester to the team title.

The field consisted of three teams: Rochester, Winamac and North Miami.

Winamac’s Kandace Kroft and Avery Wegner were second in 40:36.

Among the other Rocheter tandems in the field, Adison Hayes and Vivian Miller were fourth in 45:08, Brooklyn Chandler and Kady Bradley were fifth in 48:00, and Alayna Jones and Trinity Baine were eighth in 59:30. A hybrid team consisting of North Miami’s Leah Miller and Rochester’s Ainsley Horvath was seventh in 53:14.

The boys race consisted of just Winamac and Rochester, and the Warriors prevailed as a team behind the winning team of Nate Pierzchalski and Logan Fredel, who won in 31:35.

Rochester’s Leandro Javier and Caden Biernacki were second in 35:44.

A hokum karem is a two-person relay race where one runner runs a mile while the other rests. Teammates slapped each other’s hands in a marked area at the start-finish line. The race is over when each runner has run three miles. A hokum karem stands as a way to have runners build their conditioning at the start of a season.

This could be particularly helpful for a team with several new runners. In addition to Biernacki, Rochester’s Lucas Scorsone and Tyson Wachtmann made their varsity debuts in the boys race, and Ochoa, Miller, Horvath, Jones and Baine made their debuts in the girls race.

Addyson Hake and Jocelynn Shafer are other newcomers who are expected to run later this season. 

“We’ve got a good percentage of our team that is brand new to the sport, more than half, I think,” Pryor said. “And so with that, there’s obviously going to come a lot of learning and a lot of growing pains, but we’re ready for it. And the girls have had a great attitude about it. As far as the newcomers, Vivian Miller has been just the strongest as far as wanting to put in the work. She’s got the right attitude and the right mindset, and she’s been kind of a leader for some of the newer ones, and I look forward to watching her groom that group as they come along. There’s a lot of potential there.”

Ochoa, who has had two older siblings run cross-country at Rochester, would appear to be the furthest along.

“She ran exceptionally well today,” Pryor said. “I loved her effort, especially at attacking the hills and making sure that she was in a good position to compete early and not going out too fast or too slow. I thought she ran the race perfectly, and she’s absolutely going to be a varsity contributor. Honestly, if she’s not my number two right away, I’m going to be a little disappointed, and I’ve already put it out there that I want her to be one of the most promising freshmen in this conference.”

The Winamac boys cross-country team won the Rochester Hokum Karem at Rochester City Park Saturday. From left – Logan Fredel, Nathan Pierzchalski, Paxton Moon, Joel Showley.

Winners from Winamac

While the Rochester duo pulled away in the girls race, Pierzchalski and Fredel routed the field in the boys race, winning by over four minutes. Both runners were regional qualifiers in the 3,200 meters in track back in May, and both are members of Winamac’s Hoosier North champion boys track team.

“They’ve been running all summer long and very well,” Winamac coach Mike Haschel said. “I feel like that was a very good opener for them. Their mile splits on this course were pretty solid.”

Haschel also praised Joel Showley and Paxton Moon, who finished third.

As for the Winamac girls, they have five runners – four seniors and a junior. Kroft and Wegner are two of those seniors, and Maddy Goodman and Roni Garbison combined to finish sixth in 49:18.

“It’s hard to gauge what the times are when this course is pretty hilly, but overall, watching them push where they need to push, they did excellent.”

Hiatt’s impact

Pryor spent the previous two seasons as Rochester Middle School coach before taking the high school job. With him moving up to the high school, that left a vacancy at the middle school coaching job, and Peyton Hiatt, a 2021 Rochester grad, was hired to replace him.

Hiatt was an all-Three Rivers Conference cross-country runner during his time at Rochester. Hiatt was also hired as a sixth grade math teacher.

“I think Peyton brings a relentless attitude to one, be great, but, two, he’s just a relentless recruiter,” Pryor said. “He’s not one to take no for an answer lightly. He’s always looking for the positive in things, and I think he is going to be one of the strongest assets we’ve had at the middle school program since coach (Allen) Sayger, who’s now at North Miami. And I think coach Hiatt has a chance to really build a big, strong team down at that level and just build that pipeline.

“The future for Rochester cross-country – top to bottom, high school to middle school – is very bright, and a lot of that owes to the work that Peyton Hiatt is doing at the middle school, trying to drive up turnout and get the numbers up and just build that attitude up. We want to be successful, and we want to work hard.”

Why a hokum karem?

Pryor said hosting a hokum karem was an idea that both he and his predecessor Alex Gudeman had toyed with, so they decided to start one with only three participating schools.

“We liked a hokum karem because we have a lot of new kids, and we felt like a 5K right out of the gate might be difficult, but we wanted to give the kids a chance to experience three miles of racing, and so we chose to do a hokum karem instead of a 3K, just so those newbies could get out there and run three miles without really feeling like you’re running three miles. You get the break in the middle as your teammate goes, and I think it’s just an easier way for the newbies to bite off that distance.”

Haschel also said it’s a good “introductory” meet for young runners.

“It’s pretty common at the beginning of the year for people to be doing these. It breaks it up a little bit instead of doing the 5K right out of the gate so you don’t have to get thrown into the deep end.”

Left: Rochester’s Leandro Javier, left, slaps teammate Caden Biernacki’s hand to indicate an exchange during the Rochester Hokum Karem at Rochester City Park Saturday. Javier, a junior, and Biernacki, a freshman, finished second.

Right: Winamac’s Kandace Kroft runs during the Rochester Hokum Karem at Rochester City Park Saturday. Kroft and partner Avery Wegner finished second overall.