With the help of supportive teammates, hard training, and the right socks, Doane has helped the Track and Field Team to an outstanding season

Ryan Doane ‘15 is a distance runner for Malvern’s Varsity Track and Field Team. Typically Ryan alternates between the mile and the two mile run. His strength is in the two mile because he has an outstanding endurance to maintain a solid pace throughout the longer distance runs.

This year’s Track and Field team has had a very successful season, winning both the Inter-Ac and PAISAA State Championship meets. Everyone on the team trained very hard, which clearly resulted in a lot of success for the team.

Doane recently stood out in the PAISAA State Championship race, which took place at the Hill School on May 14. Malvern was losing by a slight margin to the Haverford School before going into the second-to-last event which was Doane’s race, the two mile.

According to Doane, track coach Mr. Mike Koenig approached him just before the race and said, “You must do whatever it takes to beat Alex Kim in order for us to win. No pressure bud.” Kim is Haverford’s number one runner and ranked 3rd overall for that race, while Doane was ranked 7th.

For the whole race, Doane drafted off of Kim. As much as he wanted to fall off at times during the race, he knew that if his team had a shot at winning this meet, he would have to stay with him. With 150 meters left in the race Ryan managed to take a full sprint into the finish line and ended up passing Kim and one other competitor to take 3rd place in the meet.

Doane said he did not even notice what his time was, and was just happy to help the team win.  After his teammates congratulated him, he realized that he had ran a time of 10:00:42  – 22 seconds faster than his time at the Inter-Ac meet, held 5 days prior to the state meet.

Malvern’s Track and Field team hasone last meet on May 30, at which Doane hopes to break a time of 4:35 in the mile.

“Most people consider track an individual sport, but you can’t win with just one or two outstanding runners, you really need a whole team,” stated Doane. The distance team, including Doane, enjoyed a very successful season. Billy McDevitt ‘15, Colin Wills ‘16, and Jaxson Hoey ‘16 are other top runners who will be returning next year.

Just like any dedicated athlete, Doane has his pregame routine. He does his best get a lot of sleep and rest despite the heavy work load. Doane emphasized the importance of eating many carbs the night before, and drinking a lot of water.

Ryan also revealed some of his superstitions. “I’m not superstitious but I always need high polo socks on my feet and specific pump-up music right before I run,” he said.