Cromwell’s Rodriguez Commits to CCSU

Cromwell's Mark Rodriguez signing CCSU Letter of Intent. Pictured with parents Carolyn and Felix Rodriguez

The past four years have been nothing less than spectacular for Cromwell’s cross-country-king Mark Rodriguez.

Following four first-team All-Shoreline selections and three first-team All-State honors, the senior made it official this month by signing his National Letter of Intent to continue running competitively at Central Connecticut State University.

“I went on a tour there. I never met the coach because of the Corona restrictions but I did talk with him multiple times,” Rodriguez said of his college decision, “I definitely wanted to stay in Connecticut.”

Connecticut has always been home to the Nutmeg-native, who grew up in Cromwell with his six siblings—three brothers and three sisters.

His older brother, Erik Rodriguez, was a gifted distance runner at CHS before graduating in 2015.

“Erik was a top runner for Cromwell during his years as a Panther, so we had our eyes on Mark even while he was running for the middle school,” said CHS cross country coach Doug McGough, “Even then you could see his strong work ethic. Many times we caught him working out in the off season with his dad.”

It was at Woodside Intermediate School that Rodriguez realized he had a knack for finishing first, “When we were doing the gym mile, I found that I was better than a lot of the other people at it, so I thought I’d give running a try.”

Once at the high school Rodriguez took his running to another level, improving his times every year.

Along with perennially earning all-conference and all-state accolades, he also finished in the Top 25 at the State Opens and was an All-New England Qualifier and All-Northeast Regional Qualifier his junior year.

This fall he continued to tear up the trails despite the modified season that did not allow for Class and State Tournament due to the COVID-19 restriction.

“Honestly I’m just glad that we had a season for cross country,” said Rodriguez, who made the best of a less than ideal situation, “I took time to relax a little bit more because I’m often running most of the year round.”

Along with running cross country, Rodriguez was a distance runner during the indoor and outdoor track seasons.  

CHS coach Josh LaMay called Rodriguez “a dream to coach”, praising him for his work ethic, “It is hard to quantify what Mark has meant to the Cromwell Cross Country team over the past four years. Prior to summer training each season he designed a schedule of weekly targets for people that wanted to run 300, 400 or 500 miles over the course of the summer. I don't remember Mark missing a practice, a weight training session or anything during his career. In addition to that even during the season he would log extra miles on his own. As a Sophomore Mark became the first male All-State runner in 14 years and he repeated that feat as a junior and senior.”

Rodriguez’s high school career achievements make him the greatest modern-day runner in Cromwell High School and the most accomplished since the program’s glory days in the 1960’s.

“Mark has had quite an impressive career while running for Cromwell High School. When he came in as a freshman, he took over the team and pushed the mindset of the team to a whole new level. He was the perfect example of the motto many coaches preach that "hard work pays off". He is so internally motivated that you never had to worry if he was going to get a workout in or if he was giving his best. Mark never misses a workout nor complains about a workout either. No matter if it is a hill workout, short interval day, or just a long run, Mark is like a machine in that he is always just so smooth and consistent. He has a quiet confidence that allows him to be very focused, so he never really seems to get intimidated,” stated McGough, “Mark holds the fastest time for a Cromwell runner on our home course with a time of 16:08. We will certainly miss Mark but are super excited to see him moving on to running at the next level. That is what you hope for as a coach is to see that passion for the sport in your athletes and the desire to take it to the next level. Mark is not just a great athlete but performs well in the classroom as well.”

The admiration between coach and athlete is mutual.

“They gave me a good training regimen. They showed me a lot of really good speed workouts that helped me, and also talk to me a lot about the mental aspect and pushing through challenges,” said Rodriguez, who added the mental side is one of the most important traits to being a great distance runner, “That’s one of the hardest things about running, pushing through it when you’re tired and you feel like giving up.”
Rodriguez added that he uses running for stress management and described his time at CHS as positive, “I’ll definitely miss the coaches, but they did a good job at preparing me for the next step in my running journey.”

His next stop is CCSU where he will join a proficient program led by longtime head coach Eric Blake, who guided the men’s cross country team to nine straight Northeast Conference championships from 2009-2017.

​“There are a few goals that I want to work on with my times, continuing to move them up,” added Rodriguez, who is leaning towards majoring in Computer Science, “I am excited that it will be a longer distance because usually I do better at the longer distances so I want to be able to see what I could do at a 10k level.”


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