PODCAST | Lunch with Ledyard
Telling stories are a fun. You can tell a lot about a personality through their stories and
Noah Mink is someone you want to tell a story. No matter what he is talking about, he can make it into a story and have fun with it.
"Funny fact, I guess about me, is I have never broken a bone is my interesting fact," he says. "Oh wait, how about this as my fun fact. I am the only one on the team to beat him in a race. It was a 50-yard dash. I ran 50 and he ran 60 and I beat him by a hair." That's Noah. Always upbeat. Always exuberant. Always with a story.
Getting into cross country starts with a story as it wasn't something he wanted to do from the start. Coming from Angleton Christian School, a tiny Christian High School in Houston, he only had two options in high school for sports – cross country or basketball. He says, "I wish I was good at basketball but that's not where I am gifted. I wasn't really good at basketball. I still warm the bench for basketball."
So by the process of elimination, Mink became a cross country runner his freshman year in high school. "I hated cross country my freshman year so bad and wanted to quit," says Mink. "My dad wouldn't let me quit. He said stick it and let's see where it goes. I am grateful that I did."
As he entered his second year, the process became better and with a great coach in Breck Koelemay, Mink started to see that there may be something in running. He says, "My sophomore year I started to turn it around, getting some medals in the JV races and then I moved up to varsity and the rest is history."
His story doesn't end there. To get to where he was at as one of the top runners, he needed inspiration and encouragement to make it happen. In every great runner, there is always someone pushing them to be better and to reach that next milestone. For Mink that was Coach Koelemay.
"My high school coach, Coach Koelemay, he was a huge influence on me. He saw my potential and encouraged me. He gave me more reps and different workouts to help better my times. It was rough but he said 'if you work really hard you could go somewhere with this.' He gave me stuff to do outside of practice and really pushed me to do better," says Mink.
And with that story leads to another story of going to college. Mink had his mind set on another school that wasn't ETBU. He knew he wanted to go to a Christian university in Texas that had cross country and he knew that was limited. Mink says, "We toured the campus I wanted to go to first. When I toured there, it felt kind of off."
So then, Mink has another story. When asked about how he made it to ETBU, he says, "How did I get to Marshall, Texas, from Houston … that's a funny story too. I didn't want to come here actually. I had my mind set on a different school. It was my dad as he is Ryan Erwin's cousin and said 'why don't we just go check it out.' I said, 'nah, I know where I am going." So his story continued as what he wanted to didn't go as planned as God's story for his life was different.
"So we came to ETBU for a visit and when I toured here, it felt like home. The campus is great, the people are great, and I met the guys on the team and they were great. It felt like home before I really even called it home," says Mink. In telling the story of his visit, his eyes lit up and the tone of his voice leaves an impression of just how special a visit it was for him.
"It was a God thing to be here. This is where I am suppose too be and I'm not going to fight that," says Mink.
Now, with not even one semester under his belt at ETBU, Mink has made a name for himself on the men's cross country team and one that head coach
Zach Richardson won't forget. Especially after Mink beat him in a race.
As a first-year head coach for cross country at ETBU, Richardson brought together a whole new men's team molding student-athletes from all over. From towns big and small, the task was going to be hard but with a personality like Mink and hard work it's starting to come together.
Mink says, "We have a lot of different backgrounds, just about anything you can imagine. We have Elijah the Cowboy, Dan from Houston, the Colorado boys, it's definitely a melting pot and that's what makes it fun. Everybody is different but we have this one thing that unites us and we all want to work hard together."
That one thing that unites them is the family that has come together under Richardson. Both the men's and women's teams work out together, travel together, and eat together. They spend a lot of time with each which a family should do. "Every practice here at ETBU we break out on 'Family. 1,23, Family.' It's real here. Those guys on the team, those are my guys. They are my brothers. We train as a family. We compete as a family. We eat in the café as a family It's all togetherness," says Mink.
The togetherness brings challenges to grow each other. Headed into the American Southwest Conference championships, Mink was in the middle of the pack of runners for ETBU but he wanted to change that. He did his research on what it would take to make the top 25 for the ASC and advance to the regional meet. Going to coach with what he wanted to do and asking the probability of that came another great story from Mink.
"On Tuesday of that week I went to see Coach about the meet and I asked him ' what do you think it would take to get 25?' I don't care about All-ASC yet but want to go to regionals," says Mink. "He gave that "woooo" that he does and he was encouraging about it and said go out and run your best race as you only know what you can do but it's going to be hard to be in the top 25. He was being realistic with me about how hard it is to reach the top 25."
Mink knew what it would take to be in the top 25 and had a game plan. The game plan was to go out and run a 5:30 mile. He did that. Then do a three mile split at 17 even and he did that. The plan was working. Along the way, though, his glasses became too foggy to see because of the rain so he threw them to his mother. With two miles to go, he says, "After that point, it was just race your best. Forget your times. Forget where you are at and just race." And so that is what he did, but the story continues.
"I had no idea how fast I was running. I was just seeing blobs of color of the uniforms in front of me and I was hunting them down (since he took off his glasses). I have 20/70 vision and couldn't see anything. I would see another blob and hunt it down. With one mile to go, I see coach at the four mile marker. I know I have been hunting people down as my fourth mile was as fast as my first mile. I asked him what place I am in and he said '30, you are in 30th'. When he said 30, my posture, I leaned forward and I was locked. I knew I had to get five people," said Mink.
Running on their home course in Marshall, Mink knew where he was at and what it would take to finish the final 200 meters to the finish. When he came around the corners, still seeing blobs in front him, teammate Rachel Morrison said, "Noah you are in 26
th, you are in 26th." Mink then knew what he had to do.
He says, "She is the reason I am at regionals. She was right by the tree and after she told me I was 26t I gave it my all. I had to get one more person and I actually got two in the home stretch and it was unreal."
After the meet, Mink and Richardson joked about their conversation earlier in the week. Richardson said, "Man, you just did the impossible. You shut me up quickly (laughing) and made me eat my words. Don't ever listen to me again as nothing is impossible. You ran your best and now get to go to regionals for it."
It was the family atmosphere and brotherhood that kept Mink going. The bond. The hard times training together. The family outings to eat carbs. Which is another story.
Mink loves his carbs. In the ETBU cafeteria, at home, on the road. If he can get pasta, he will. From the mystery pasta bowl he had once in the ETBU healthy line that was never served again to the many outings at Olive Garden. If there is pasta, he there. "Funny enough, my favorite food at home is pasta. Anything like lasagna, noodles, spaghetti," says Mink.
If Olive Garden is on the map, Mink is there. He says, "My team makes fun of me because I eat too many breadsticks at Olive Garden. They are free carbs!"
Now another story will unfold for Mink as he heads to the West Coast for the NCAA Regional Meet. Never being to the West Coast, Mink has always wanted to go and now he can with his team. Although the conditions will not be Texas running conditions being in the mid-20s and snowy, Mink says, "It's going to be cold there and not exactly the West Coast I was envisioning but it will be good to be there. I have never been to the West Coast and I am excited to go. I am excited to get to travel with the team and coach and see a whole new level of competition."
That story for the NCAA Regionals hasn't been told yet but Mink will have a story. A story of exuberance with a smile and laugh with it because Mink has a story to tell. A story of coming to ETBU. A story of running a race in the rain. A story of learning from each. His personality is his story and that's why people need to know
Noah Mink.
