Last November, in the first giddy minutes after his team toppled the NAU men’s cross country dynasty, Oklahoma State coach Dave Smith was asked when he knew that victory was assured.
It came via phone call from his wife at the nine-kilometer mark.
“My wife … says, ‘Hey, you got this in the bag,’” Smith told reporters. “I said, ‘No, where’s Brodey Hasty?’ She says, ‘He’s way back.’ And I said, ‘That’s the problem, because that guy is coming. Tell me, please, where that guy is.’ So, we were waiting for Brodey Hasty. And he did, he moved up in the end.”
Not even the patented Hasty final-kilometer kick could help propel the Lumberjacks to another NCAA Cross Country title in 2023, as Hasty had done the previous year … and in 2021 … and in 2020. Hasty’s gutsy and systemic picking off of runners at race’s end was a huge component to NAU’s victories, leading many observers to call him the nation’s best No. 5 runner, a guy who always comes up big in the nationals.
Now, as Hasty, 24, prepares to end his five-year NAU career by competing Friday night in the NCAA Outdoor Nationals 5,000 meters alongside teammates Nico Young and Cael Grotenhuis, he’s had a chance to reflect on his contributions to the program and also contemplate his future in competitive running.
Though this will be the second time Hasty has competed in the NCAA Outdoor Nationals – he finished 18th in the 5K in 2019 as a freshman – even he admits his legacy at the school will be as a cross country runner, how his clutch performances, especially in the 2022 race, were key.
All of which is perhaps a bit unexpected, since he’s not really a fan of the 10K distance in cross – too long, too grueling – though he admits the intense nature of the event suits his competitive nature.
“For me, cross country is suited to the way that I race a lot better,” Hasty said. “There’s a lot of patience involved, where people will fly by you or drop back. It’s this whole thing where you have to pay attention pretty much the whole time and be willing to, let’s call it, lose 10 places at 5K knowing that you’re going to get to the finish line.
“And so there’s a little finesse to it, but there’s also something that goes back to the truth of just running hard. For me, it’s what I’m suited for – try real hard and run hard and see what happens.”
CLUTCH CROSS COUNTRY RACING IN BIG MEETS
Hasty may stand barely 5-foot-7, a stark contrast to, say, the willowy figures of Young and teammate Drew Bosley, he is nothing if not hard-nosed, a consummate grinder.
Here’s how a typical Hasty cross country race plays out: He gets off the line cleanly and in the pack, then tends to get swallowed up in the pack for the first two kilometers, like a lone aspen among towering pines, then slowly and methodically worms his way into position by the halfway mark, followed by a steady progression in the latter kilometers before hastily picking off runners left and right in the home stretch.
In 2020, his first NCAA nationals, Hasty was 112th at 1K, 55th at 5K, 48th at 8K and finished 44th – NAU’s fifth runner.
In 2021, same thing: 63rd at 3K, 52nd at 8K, 39th at the finish – NAU’s fifth runner.
Then came the 2022 nationals, contested at Oklahoma State’s home course. It was this race that cemented Hasty’s reputation as a clutch performer when it counts the most. The Lumberjacks, as a team, went out faster than usual in the race to put the pressure on the competition, mainly OSU, from the gun. Hasty was 42nd at the 1K mark, dipped back to 44th at the halfway mark before setting his sights on any runners ahead of him, particularly those wearing OSU’s distinctive orange singlets.
At 8K, Hasty was four spots behind Kusche, who had started fading, and slightly ahead of OSU’s fourth and fifth runners Rory Leonard and Victor Shitsama. At 9K, Hasty had passed Kusche, now fading fast and was less than a second ahead of Shitsama, though four spots behind Leonard.
“At 1K to go,” Hasty recalled, “I heard Dave Smith yell that they were 4 points up, and then I looked up and saw both OSU guys, so I knew that, minimally, I had to get those two guys and then see how many others. I didn’t know how far George was going back, but George did great to hang on.”
In a race this close, any change of position in the closing stretch would determine the winner. And that’s when Hasty took off. He moved up a remarkable 10 spots in the final quarter mile, finishing seven places ahead of Shitsama and eight ahead of Leonard. Kusche held on to 39th place at NAU’s fifth runner, giving the Lumberjacks the title in a tiebreaker.
Little wonder, then, why OSU’s Smith was so concerned about Hasty in the 2023 rematch race. This time, Hasty ran just as well, if not better, going from 84th at 1K to 37th at 8K to finish in 25th as NAU’s No. 5.
Recalling the 2022 race, Hasty nodded and called it “stressful.” That was an understatement. It seemed NAU’s hopes were on Hasty stepping up to take the team’s fourth spot. But for Hasty, nothing had changes in his approach. He said he’s not the type of cross country runner to “go out hard and hold on;” he much prefers the lurk and then strike.
“Getting off the line, you really have to trust yourself in knowing it’s a long race,” he said of the 2022 nationals. “I don’t know if there was a map at 1K, but I think I was 90th, but the thing is, half the people around me are guys I recognize. It’s not to say other people aren’t going to get in that mix but 90th isn’t 90th, if you stay put with people who are going to move up. By the time I get to 2 or 3K, I have a better idea of where I actually am. That first 2K, sometimes you just look buried, and everybody relaxes, and it thins out and you end up where you’re meant to be.
“Then we came out of the hills, I thought I was somewhere between 40 and 55. And then as we were going through the next hills, (NAU associate head coach Jared) Cornfield yelled at me that I was the 5th guy and at 7K I was in a pack of 10 guys. For what I was trying to do at NAU, blowing up isn’t really an option. (Coach Mike) Smith and I, it was always looking for the best way to maximize (his) place. The idea wasn’t, get in the top 30. It was just position yourself in the top 40 and then just race.
“I would guess I was still 35th with 200 meters to go, right as we crested the hill. It was kind of nerve-wracking. It’s just, trying to catch the next guy and the next guy and the next guy, and every time I did it’s just positive reinforcement.”
“It’s not that I’m the fifth guy; it’s that we’ve got five really great guys … I love it that people can trust me and know what I’m going to do, but there is pressure.”
Brodey Hasty
At the end, Hasty looked totally spent. Then again, so did every other runner out there, as a finish area of a cross-country national often looks like a decimated battlefield.
CROSS COUNTRY SEQUEL IN 2023
Hasty would have a great story with which to regale listeners in his old age, but 2022 turned out not to be the end of his cross-country eligibility. Because of Covid, he and nearly every other senior runner in the NCAA were granted an extra year of eligibility.
So, a sequel was on tap for 2023, but this time Oklahoma State had reloaded with several speedy additions from Kenya to add to its already-strong roster. And, indeed, NAU was denied another title, though its 71 team points perhaps would have won in any other year. Hasty did his job once more, going from 84th at 1K to 37th at 8K to 22nd teamwise at the finish.
Though disappointed by the second-place team finish, Hasty hastened to add he was proud of his team’s and his finishes.
“I attribute a lot of it to having done it so many times before,” Hasty said of his steady 2023 race. “I wouldn’t doubt that a person with less experience in the same boat might have had a little bit of a harder time. That may or may not be true. But having been there five times, there were a lot of situations that were (hard). Like, early, running down a steep hill, lots of guys would pass me. If I’d let that get in my head, I would’ve gone with them and kind of hurt myself. It did hurt a lot of people who did just that because those hills were steep. Coming into the final 2 or 3K, I primed myself better. I knew how to get there. But that doesn’t mean it was easy.”
True, but Hasty makes it seem as much.
Asked how he feels when people called him the “nation’s best No. 5 runner,” Hasty said it didn’t seem like a dig or a backhanded compliment. He knows his ability and is satisfied that he ran to his ability.
“The way I always framed it is, it wasn’t that I was the fifth or fourth man (for NAU),” he explained, “I placed higher or better every year, but our team was collectively getting better every year, too. I’d like to think it was a general raising of the bar.
“When you’re fifth guy (in 2023) is 22nd and you finish second (as a team), you can’t be too sad. Me and (OSU’s Alex) Maier (his team’s No. 5), we were both ahead of BYU’s No. 1, so, OK, it’s all relative. It’s not that I’m the fifth guy; it’s that we’ve got five really great guys. Yes, there’s an aspect of it that’s a compliment. I love it that people can trust me and know what I’m going to do, but there is pressure.”
Hasty has long been accustomed to dealing with pressure. In 2017-18, he was a high-school phenom out of Brentwood, Tenn., sort of a precursor to Young and Colin Sahlman in that respect. He spent his senior year, before the super-shoes era, chasing the four-minute mile barrier, barely missing (4:00.5).
HOW HASTY GOT TO NAU IN THE FIRST PLACE
His choice of colleges – Oregon – made national headlines in the running world. Then, the summer before Hasty’s freshman year, Oregon coaches Andy and Maurica Powell left for the University of Washington. Hasty was left with a difficult choice for a teenager: stay at Oregon, go with the Powells to Seattle or transfer to NAU, which had been his second choice to begin with.
When Hasty chose NAU, it made headlines once more. And the expectations for him similarly rose.
“It was between Oregon and NAU, anyway,” he said of the recruiting process. “I really trusted both Powell and Smith. Most people in my corner were telling me to stay in Oregon and see what was going on. But it just didn’t feel right. It was one of those situations where I wanted to go to NAU in the first place, so it gave the opportunity to do what I wanted to do in the first place. In hindsight, as an older, more mature person, it worked out. I could’ve been injured (at NAU) for the last six years here and been happy.
“Flagstaff is my happy place, I knew I was going to be happier at NAU in the first place. It was a people thing, but also a place. I grew up in Utah, even though I went to high school in Nashville. I knew I’d be happy here in the mountains.”
If Hasty has any say, he’ll stay in his adopted mountain town for a while. He recently graduated with a Masters degree in secondary education – he already had a B.A. in philosophy – but he wants to see just how much better he can get on the track. So a pro career is a possibility. He said he’s talked with Smith about his prospects, and he’s also talked with Smith about eventually going into coaching.
The 1,500 meters and the mile, his specialty in high school, still intrigues him, even though he ended up running long distances (3K indoors; 5K and occasionally 10K outdoors) at NAU.
“I just kind of let the training take me where it was going to go,” he said. “I ended up scoring and doing better in the longer than shorter distances (in college). I think, too, that sometimes coming off cross country, I’d find it a little more difficult to get back into the short distances.
“Potentially looking at post-collegiate, there might be more range there to explore. But, in college, there was always conference coming up and I’d always been a consistent scorer in the 5. If Smith puts you in an event, the answer is yes. I would’ve liked to at some point done some more miles, but that being said, I’m happy with all the 15s, 3s and 5s I’ve done at NAU.”
He has one more 5,000 left Friday night in Eugene. In a way, it will bring Hasty’s college career full circle, racing at Hayward Field at the University of Oregon, the school he originally thought he’d run for.
“I’m going to try to go in with a little bit of no expectation, to be honest,” he said. “That’s what helped me at regionals. We practice what we preach with Coach Smith. He said in interviews before that the best way to get to nationals or the Olympics is to not try to do that. Now, it’s about, ‘What am I going to do when I get there?’ I’m just going work hard.”
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