As a cross country athlete, Nottingham High senior Meraf Degaga was always on the run this summer.
His day would start at 8 a.m. with Northstars’ captains’ practice. At 1 p.m., he would get to his job at Episcopo’s Pharmacy in Mercerville and take prescription orders. From there, he bolted to Centro Grille in Robbinsville at 6, where he worked as a dish washer during the dinner hour and beyond. Degaga would get home at 12:30 and, after a few hours sleep, was back out to captains’ practice.
If work ethic counts for anything, Degaga is already ahead of the game entering his final season.
“My ultimate goal this whole summer was to focus on running, but since I needed to raise money for college, I had to sacrifice a little,” said Degaga, who hopes to attend Norwich University, a military school in Vermont. “But I got to run with some great college friends, so I still had a chance to do a lot.”
Evidently, it made a difference, as coach Melissa Foley was impressed by Degaga when practice began.
“He came in really in good shape,” Foley said. “He’s really killing the workouts. He should have a good performance for the first meet (on Sep. 16).
“He’s coming in well ahead of the game. That’s ideal for a coach to get them coming in in shape and you only have to worry about the race aspect of it. He came in dedicated and ready to go.”
In a program defined by superstar Grace Dwyer, the boys’ team has steadily been improving over recent years. Last year, Larry Velasquez was the first Northstar boy to become an overall winner in a tri-meet in five years. With Velasquez graduated, Degaga has emerged as the boys’ number one runner this season.
“He’s leading the workouts,” Foley said. “He’s one of my captains, he’s really just stepping up in everything we’re doing when he’s out there.”
Degaga is a latecomer to cross country as he did not come out for the team until last year. While attending Kuser Elementary School, he played soccer “but didn’t have such a great experience with the team, and I just got out of sports all together.”
As a Nottingham freshman, he toyed with going out for tennis in the spring until some friends motivated him to try track. He would spend Sundays doing mile runs with his friend Markenson Chery and decided to be a sprinter, as distance running did not appeal to him.
“My sophomore year, I trained in the weight room to become a sprinter and just lifted weights and what not,” Degaga said. “The first day of practice my sophomore year I went on a (short distance) run with the sprinters and beat everybody. I went out fast, I had a lot of energy left and decided to go out for distance after that. I ran with the distance guys, and kept up with the top guys so I felt pretty good about it.”
The next obvious move was to go out for cross country. Prior to his junior year he logged plenty of miles.
“I got overwhelmed, but I still loved it,” he said. “I did pretty well last year, I kept up with Larry Velasquez in workouts, that felt good. It was a great overall experience, I believe.”
Anthony Martinez was the team’s No. 2 runner last year (and is back this year), but Degaga managed to finish ahead of him a few times as he progressed.
“Meraf was in my class so I kind of knew what kind of person he was,” Foley said. “He’s soft spoken, very respectful and dedicated. I was obviously impressed with his athletic ability. He’s a natural runner, a hard worker. He has a good work ethic in everything he does.
“He spent the whole summer staying on this training schedule he has. He’s strong, and going into this season he has a lot of endurance that he built over the summer. We’re really working on building his speed while keeping the endurance aspect of it. A runner can have all the endurance in the world but having a runner with speed is a whole different thing.”
Degaga’s top time at Veterans Park—Nottingham’s home course—was 18:47 last year. This year, after getting just five hours sleep, he did a 19:02 the first time he timed himself at the end of July, which is encouraging as times are always at their highest in preseason.
“I think he can definitely win some meets for us this year,” Foley said.
“My number one goal is to at least medal at counties, I would love to do that,” Degaga said. “I never really got a medal yet in track or cross country. I’ve had so many opportunities where I missed by a few meters.”
And then there is Dwyer, who does nothing but medal in big races. Just her presence has been helpful to guys like Meraf as they try to grasp the nuances of the sport.
“She influences everyone on the team,” Foley said. “Someone like him, who’s the top runner on the guys’ team, Grace is pushing him because he knows she’s right behind him.
“Grace went to a running camp this summer and brought some stuff back for our team. She told us some of the stuff she learned, her experience with some of these top runners. Everyone on the team takes it really serious because they know she’s out there experiencing these things, going to nationals and being around top runners in nation. That’s obviously going to motivate the rest of them.”
It has certainly motivated Degaga.
“She’s honestly the greatest teammate I ever had,” he said. “She’s such a great motivator. We had two workouts this past week, and she was pushing me to go out fast and keep up with her.”
When it comes to life in general, it’s pretty tough to keep up with Degaga. He is vice-president of Nottingham’s Key Club and a member of the National Honor Society. He has left both his summer jobs now that preseason practice has started, but is yearning to return to at least one of them.
It’s the kind of schedule that requires discipline, much like running long distances does.
“I just love challenging myself a lot,” Degaga said. “I feel like this is very challenging. You’re out there and running a long distance for a long time. It really helps clear my mind.”
Nottingham High School senior Meraf Degaga runs in Veterans Park the morning of Aug. 20, 2014. (Staff photo by Rob Anthes.),
