PALATINE, Ill. – Sophomore cross country runner Brennan Albuck (/Hoffman Estates) has grown as both a student and athlete while at Harper College. The Hoffman Estates High School grad, who finished as the Hawks' top runner at the national meet last year, is only getting stronger in his second season.

Albuck has been extremely consistent for the Hawks in 2014 and can now call himself the fourth Harper College Athlete of the Week for the 2014-15 school year.

Albuck, who really got into the sport of cross country when he came here, is a key piece to the Hawks' run at a fourth consecutive national title in just over two weeks. He recently ran a personal-best time of 26:21.50 at the Benedictine Eagle Invitational and thinks his new mindset will help him cut loose even better times.

"I have to be patient and work hard but not overstrain. That might give me a better result. I'm hoping to see that next big drop in time," he said.

This year's Harper team is even deeper than in year's past, as the Hawks have won or placed highly in several meets with four-year schools. Albuck knows he wouldn't be where he is today without the support and encouragement from his teammates and coaches.

"It's nice to know you have teammates that are at your side every step of the way. Everybody sets the bar of improvement really high," Albuck said. "Coaches (Jim) Macnider and (Eric) Wallor have been supportive every step of the way. On days when I've been frustrated, they've been there."

The Hawks recently won the Bradley Classic White Race and have not placed worse than fourth as a team in a meet this season. Head coach Jim Macnider has been impressed with Albuck, who has finished as Harper's top runner once, second runner four times, and third runner one time.

"He's focused, has a set of goals, and goes about it the right way," Macnider said. "He's a hard worker and very coachable. When you give him ideas, he follows up on it."

Albuck, who will graduate from Harper College in May of 2015 and plans to major in either fine arts or paleontology, aspires to run at a four-year school next year. However, he knows there's a lot of work to still be done to win another national title and wants to soak in his whole Harper experience as much as possible.

"I'd recommend it (Harper) to just about everyone, as opposed to spending a lot of money at a larger school not knowing if that was what I wanted to do," he said. "Things became a lot more serious for me here, and this has been a great learning experience for me."