After a stellar running career at Mount Gilead High School that saw him regularly compete in state meets and be named an All-Ohioan multiple times, Michael Snopik will attempt to earn more accolades at Ashland University.
Snopik, who will major in environmental science, noted that his choice of major played a role in signing with Ashland.
“The environmental science program at Ashland in general is really strong,” he said. “The facilities are really nice.”
It wasn’t an easy decision for him, though.
“It was a good, lengthy process,” he said. “I looked at a few schools in all divisions. It took about all my senior year to narrow it down to which one I liked the best.”
Snopik now is looking forward to the increased level of competition at the collegiate level.
“I’m super-excited to set new goals and to run with collegiate athletes at big meets,” he said. “And just make new friendships with teammates.”
However, he added that he feels prepared for that challenge due to having competed and placed highly in a number of big meets while in high school.
“Running at some big Division I high school meets and going to Division III state meets helps,” he said. “It helps you get used to the environment of a big meet.”
One thing he’s looking forward to is how, when it comes to the competition he’ll be facing on a meet-by-meet basis, every time he competes, it will feel like a state-level high school competition.
“That’s just super-exciting to me,” he said. “Everyone I’ll race in college will be really good.”
And the MG graduate was no stranger to state meets while in high school. Snopik ran in the state cross country meet all four years. As a freshman, he was 104th and improved to 45th as a sophomore, 25th as a junior and seventh as a senior. He was All-Ohio the last two years and reached the podium his senior year. In track, he placed seventh in the 1600 and eighth as part of the 3200 relay as a senior. He also competed in three events as a junior.
He did note that he’ll miss the closeness that he developed with his cross country team at Mount Gilead.
“I’ll definitely miss how close the cross country boys were,” he said. “I’m sure at Ashland, I’ll be close to them, but here, we’re close. And (MG cross country coach) Jake Hayes — I’ll definitely stay close to him.”
However, he’s looking forward to going to Ashland and competing for that university.
“I’m excited to just get into college and meet a ton of new people, get into environmental science and travel to other states for meets,” said Snopik.
