Hunter Christopher of the Youngstown State men's cross country team has added an additional accolade to his impressive resume as the Horizon League announced him as the 2023 HLXC Men's Athlete of the Year on Thursday.
Christopher, who won the individual Horizon League XC title at the 2023 HL Championships, is earning the athlete of the year title for the first time in his cross country career. The distance standout in both track and cross country continues to bolster his incredible list of accomplishments.
The senior from Salem, Ohio crossed the line with a time of 24:04.2 to be crowned Horizon League Champion. His performance helped the Penguins to their second consecutive conference title alongside teammates Ryan Meadows, Thomas Caputo, Sage Vavro and Blaze Fichter who completed the Penguins' scoring effort in the title race.
Beyond being crowned Horizon League Champion, Christopher has run incredible races all season long, setting both the 8k and 10k program records in 2023. He broke the previous 8k school record of 24:13 by nearly a minute since the start of the season. He clocked the fastest Horizon League 8k time of the season, running a time of 23:17.5 at the Texas A&M Arturo Barrios Invitational to finish sixth among a loaded field of 365 runners. Prior to that, he clocked a 23:50 at the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invite to earn a 14th-place finish in the highly competitive Blue Race.
Christopher closed out the 2023 season by finishing as the top runner in the Horizon League at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional, placing 26th with a 10k time of 30:23.9. His time bested the program record by 30 seconds and helped lead the Penguins to their best regional finish in school history.
During the season, Hunter earned the HLXC Men's Runner of the Week title twice and concluded the season as a first-team all-league honoree for the third season straight. Christopher was also named to the Horizon League All-Academic Team for his performances on the course and in the classroom.
