Hunter Hannah was one of the leaders of the Matilda Torres Toros cross country and track teams, and will now head to UC Riverside to continue his athletic journey.
Hannah was one of four Torres cross country and track athletes to sign a National Letter of Intent, and this was a process six years in the making.
“I knew I was going to be a college athlete between my freshman and sophomore year,” he said. “I was competing in these biggest races in the state going against these older kids and some of the fastest runners, and I was only a sophomore racing against seniors. That’s when I knew I could make it.”
Coming out of middle school, Hannah, Benjamin Fernandez and the rest of that class dominated, and looked to do the same at the high school level. Five Central Section rings later (four in cross country and one in track) kind of tells the story of success.
“My freshman year, I was injured the first couple of months,” Hannah said. “As the year went on, we got better. As the career went on, we just kept getting better and better. My junior year, I wish I could have done a little better, but I was injured. I think that hurt my performances that year. I did everything I could to be where I needed to be my senior year. I felt like my high school career was great the way it came out.
“It’s crazy we got to do it four years in a row. We weren’t just good at Valley, but good at State, too. It’s going to be hard to repeat.”
Hannah will run cross country and the middle distance races in track. He graduated from Torres with a 3.96 grade point average.
“I was one class short of getting a 4.0. I was five percent away in one class,” he said.
He plans to major in environmental engineering.
Hannah chose UC Riverside over the University of Pacific in Stockton, Sacramento State and UC Merced.
“I really liked the people over there. I fit in there,” Hannah said. “The coach is a really good coach, and welcomed me with open arms. He gave me more scholarship money so I could be able to attend. I felt like it was the right fit for me. They contacted me through Instagram after my race in Arcadia. I talked to him there, and met him at another college race we were watching.
“Riverside is the furthest away. I wanted to get out of California and explore the other states. Riverside was closer than where I wanted to be, but it is still four hours away. It’ still far away from my parents so I can live on my own.”
Hannah admits that UC Riverside was his No. 2 choice behind UC Merced, but Riverside pushed its way to No. 1.
“When I started talking to him (UC Riverside coach) more and got to know him, they moved up really fast. I liked the environment there. I love the campus and the place where it’s at. I think it’s going to be a great thing for me to go there and show what I can do at the college level.”
Project Run Madera founder, and Madera track supporter Alisha Brown also attended UC Riverside, as well as a number of other athletes.
“There’s a lot of people from Madera that have gone to Riverside. I talked to Alisha about the campus and find out things behind the scenes,” Hannah said.
With three of his teammates headed in different directions, Hannah hopes to enjoy the time he has with his “brothers” this summer.
“It’s awesome for us. We have three runners going to a Div. I and Azarel (Barrios-Meza) at a Div. II. It’s cool to see how we developed into these positions,” Hannah said. “It’s going to be weird going in different directions with my teammates. I’ve run with them for six years. We are all going our different ways. We were all talking to the Riverside guy, at one point. Alfonso (Del Toro), before he got the offer to Portland, that as his. No. 1 choice. It just happened we went our different ways.”
For six years, Hannah had a friendly competition with Benjamin Fernandez, who will be going to Utah Tech. The duo took their turns leading the team in the right direction.
“We both want to beat each other and want to be on top,” Hannah said. “We’ve done it for so long. We keep a record of who beats who most. Most of the time, Ben won. We wanted to make sure our teammates did everything they could. We woke them up in the morning to make sure they went to practice. We made them do the extra things to get to this place. We made sure Alfonso did everything he could to get back to where he is now.”
Although Hannah looked to sign his NLI at the school’s signing day, he didn’t officially sign his letter until just before graduation.
“I was already committed to the school. I just didn’t have the paperwork,” he said. “I committed in May. I was still entertaining some offers. I was also getting new offers. As the track season wore on, I was getting better. The faster times I hit, the more offers I got. The colleges were waiting for my decision.”
Another adjustment Hannah will have to make is not having his father as a coach. His father was his middle school head coach, and then assisted for four seasons at the highs school level.
“It’s going to be different. He’s been with me for so long. He’s my lifeline,” Hannah said. “My parents were fine with Riverside. They liked where I was and knew the coach would take care of me.”
Now that Hannah and his fellow seniors have laid down a legacy, he knows it will be tough to beat.
“It’s going to take some big shoes to fill for what we did the past four years,” he said. “From winning four years, and me and Alfonso breaking nine minutes in the two-mile it’s going to be crazy for the upcoming kids. It’s going to show everyone Torres cross country and track is legit. It’s going to take someone special to break my 3,200 record. It took my last race to do it.”