Daily Pilot Athlete of the Week: Diana Hossfeld - Running’ like the

wind

Tony Altobelli

After a near-demotion from the Corona del Mar High cross traveling

squad a couple of years ago for consistently not keeping up, one thing is

for certain. If there is a pack of CdM runners in a race, Diana Hossfeld

is right in the middle of them ready to make things happen.

“The whole team was ready to kill me when I made that decision,” Coach

Bill Sumner recalled. “After that, Diana wasn’t eight feet away from us

anywhere. On the track, at the lunch line, in the parking lot, she was

always there.”

Hossfeld looks back at the incident as a great learning experience. “I

guess I was afraid to work hard,” she said. “I was afraid I would get

burned out from running or something. But when I realized I might not

make varsity, I started running harder and stronger than ever.”

That hard work has paid off for Hossfeld. Last week, she took the top

spot in the Dana Hills Invitational senior race with a time 19:02 of on

the three-mile course.

“I really like running on hills and that really helped me out,” the

Daily Pilot Athlete of the Week said. “I was feeling pretty good at the

two-mile mark, saw the leader and went for it.”

Unlike her teammate, Season Meservey, Hossfeld doesn’t have that

ridiculously fast start to her races. “If I went out that fast, I’d die,”

Hossfeld said with a laugh. “I have more of a reserved start and I hang

around the pack. With about a mile to go is when I try to make a move.”

Sumner agrees. “She’s totally the opposite of Season, that’s for

sure,” he said. “She always hangs around close enough to do something out

there. She’s a patient starter, but she’ll go if she has to go. She’ll do

whatever it takes to stay with everyone else.”

Hossfeld played soccer as a kid and realized at a young age that she

was not the next Mia Hamm. “I wasn’t very good at all,” she said,

smiling. I got into running by taking part in the Spirit Runs as a kid

and I really got interested in it.”

Attention to Hossfeld’s opponents: Don’t let the charming and quiet

personality fool you on the course. “She might be very feminine off the

course, but she’s a bully on it,” Sumner said. “I think her biggest

strength is that she’s tough as nails out there. People will see her run

and they’re going to look at her and say, ‘Where is she getting that

from?’ ”

Hossfeld is getting that extra wind from her tireless effort and

preparation and a desire to help the Sea Kings defend their CIF Southern

Section Division IV and state titles.

“I’m very competitive against other teams,” she said. “I will do

anything I have to do to help this team win again,” she said.

With the hours she’s spent on and off the track with her teammates,

it’s almost like another family for the just-turned 17-year-old.

“The other seniors in this group and I have been running together for

years,” Hossfeld said. “I think that when we go our separate ways in

college, we’ll still be great friends and we’ll keep in touch. The people

on this team is what I love the most about cross country.”

Now with bigger meets approaching, Sumner believes that now is the

time to take the elite runners up to another level and that includes

Hossfeld.

“We’re going to start raising the ante a little bit,” Sumner said.

“She’s definitely in that top pack of runners we have who can handle what

we throw at her. In fact, I even believe we’re holding her back a little

bit. You’re going to see some great times coming out of this runner.”

Playfully nicknamed, “Ostrich,” Hossfeld is one bird that will not

bury her head in the sand when the Pacific Coast League and CIF finals

approach.

“My teammates call me ostrich because of my long legs,” she said.

“I’ve got a real long stride.”