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Name: Ryan Dempsey
School: Hamilton High School
Q: What does your training look like right now given the current situation?
A: Right now I am working with my future college coach at Boston University to get some good base mileage heading into cross. My training right now consists of a lot of longer runs, biking, and at home strength/core.
Q: What are you doing to stay busy other than run right now?
A: Other than running, I enjoy art so I have been doing a lot of painting in my free time. I also have started cleaning out my room so it'll be all packed up when I'm ready to move out in August.
Q: What was your most memorable race/moment?
A: My most memorable race was the state 3200 last May. The conditions were perfect, the field was stacked with some pretty great runners, and we all just went out under the MCC lights and put on a show. It was a huge PR for me and a great feeling to place 5th when I was ranked much lower going in.
2019 Meet of Champions - 1600M - Ryan took 6th overall.
Q: What was the funniest thing that happened during your running career?
A: The funniest thing that happened during my running career happened two years ago at Hohokam. We were all resting under the tent when a crazy wind swept it up. My teammate Dan Darnell grabbed on to try to save it, but his distance running 140-pound body was no match, and he took flight for multiple seconds. The tent was fine and lived 5 more months before it was blown away for good at Desert Solstice.
Q: Who would you consider your biggest competition over your four years?
A: My biggest competition over my running career was probably my teammate Gavin Vogt. He was always there to push me in workouts, and almost every cross race ended with us sprinting down the finish straight neck and neck. It was also super fun to compete with one of my childhood best friends, Marcos Gonzalez from Brophy. We were in the same kindergarten class and it felt really cool to race alongside him all these years later.
Q: What was your greatest accomplishment?
A: My greatest accomplishment was placing 5th in both the 1600 and 3200 at state this past May. I had no idea this would be the last time I would step on the track in a Hamilton jersey, but I'm proud of how I represented my school and pushed myself harder than I thought I ever could.
2019 Twilight Championship Race - Ryan took 3rd overall
Q: If you could do it all over again what would you change about your running career in high school?
A: If I could do it all over again, I would definitely take bigger steps to prevent injury. I had never been injured from running so when my stress fracture hit at the end of my senior cross season it felt unreal and I wish I would've done more to prevent it. Other than that, I would also have loved to have a senior track season and get a shot at the 1600 and 3200 school records which I was a few seconds away from last year.
Q: What were the most difficult obstacles you had to overcome?
A: The most difficult obstacle I had to overcome was dealing with watching my senior cross country state meet from the sidelines. My stage 4 stress fracture put me out after sectionals, and it was hard to comprehend that the last four years had lead to such an anticlimactic finish. In the end, I had to come to terms with the fact that this kind of thing happens to most runners somewhere along the line, and I would just have to make up for it at the collegiate level.
Cesar Chavez Sectionals D1 Boys Race (2019) - Ryan took 6th.
Q: What will you miss the most?
A: The thing I will miss the most about high school running will definitely be the friendships I've made. I met so many of my closest friends from this sport and it will be really hard to say goodbye to them when I leave across the country this August. I will also really miss my head coach, Scott Moomaw, as he has been there for my entire career as a Husky, and showed me what it felt like to truly love a sport.