Ithaca’s Noah Hilker wins state steeplechase title

Ithaca High’s Noah Hilker takes steeplechase title

June 14 marked the final day of the high school sports season. Multiple sports had their state championships, including outdoor track and field in Middletown. Many Tompkins County athletes took part in the competition, and one came out on top.

Ithaca’s Noah Hilker won the Class A state title in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a time of 9:15.78. Hilker was welcomed home later that night with a police and firetruck escort back to the high school. When getting off the bus to celebrate with the community, it hadn’t hit him yet that what he just achieved was nothing short of incredible.

“It’s kind of weird because I haven’t really had anything like this happen,” Hilker said. “I’ve won races before, but something at this level is just kind of unexplainable. I can’t really explain the feeling. It’s just really weird, and I don’t think it’s fully come to me yet.”

Hilker went into the race with a strong chance of capturing the Class A crown. He was seeded second, with only Tri-Valley’s Van Furman seeded above him. Although Furman was competing in Class C, Hilker still had to worry about some Class A runners who were hanging on his shoulders. After trailing through the opening 200 meters, Hilker fended off the competition and pulled away to glory.

“He has a lot of endurance obviously, but his top speed and the fun he has when he’s running fast I think is one of the things that gives him an edge,” said head coach Becca Lovenheim. “He’s learned to not just rely on only his speed. The fact that this was a race where his technique was so strong and he knew he could stay in control and then go ahead and push when he needed to to kind of break away from everyone else and then see what he could do, it was really cool.”

It isn’t a surprise to see Hilker win a state title in a long-distance event. After all, that’s been his specialty year-round with the Little Red, especially this season. In the fall, he finished in fifth place at federations in cross country. In the winter, he placed fourth at states in the 1,600-meter run and broke the school and Section IV records in the process. While the steeplechase has the added obstacles of barriers and water pits, Hilker was ready for the physical and mental challenge the event presents.

“It is an endurance event, but it’s also a very strength-demanding event because you have to jump over barriers,” Hilker said. “You have to jump over water. So at the same time as you’re getting tired from running, your legs are also exhausted because of jumping over all those barriers. It gets really, really hard mentally, especially in the last two laps where you’re completely lactic and it’s just really hard to keep going.”

Hilker’s championship-winning time shattered his own school record by seven seconds. He also holds seven of the top 10 times in the event in program history. While his times have naturally improved over the years, the biggest leap in growth occurred between his junior and senior years.

“What made that happen was just consistency in training and mileage,” Hilker said. “Before that, I was kind of lazy in a way because I didn’t really have high consistent mileage. But this year I had high consistent mileage, which gave me that strength to go faster and recover faster, so I was able to do more steeples and do them more efficiently. [Assistant] coach LJ [Lansdowne] helped me with the steeple barriers to get me more efficient with that.”

Hilker continues the trend of state champions for Ithaca High track. Last winter, Riley Hubisz took home the gold in the 3,200-meter run. Last spring, Joshua Kwakye-Minott did the same in the long jump.

“It’s really awesome to just keep this state championship title thing going for people,” Hilker said. “I just really hope that there’ll be more state champions to come from Ithaca, and I hope this is just the beginning.”

Hilker’s legacy has already been cemented as one of best track athletes with so many records broken and championships won. But he will also be remembered for his outstanding work ethic, teamsmanship, and sportsmanship.

“Noah’s a three-time sportsmanship recipient,” Lovenheim said. “I don’t know that we’ve had that happen from the same school. It was voted on by all of our coaching peers, and he’s just really stood out in that way for being a good member of those things. His legacy will definitely be a very sweet one. It’s one that’s going to be hard to fill.”

While Hilker departs the Little Red on the highest of notes, it luckily won’t be the last time he graces the track. He will continue his running career at Binghamton University.