Seth Hirsch can be seen at Lake Zorinsky by 6 a.m. most mornings. He’s out there running laps around a lake most of us would struggle to walk once. He’s driven to become the best runner he can—and he is succeeding.

“He’s by far the best in the state of Nebraska,” says Colin Johnston, track and cross country coach at Millard West.

Hirsch, now a 16-year-old junior, has run the mile in 4 minutes and 30 seconds. He has broken the 15-minute barrier in the 5K.

For some context: the median time for a runner in their 20s to complete a 5K is about 25 minutes.

Add to his amazing times the fact that Hirsch also broke both fibulas last year.

“I was probably doing too much mileage and got stress fractures,” Hirsch says. He cracked one fibula in the fall while running cross country, the other in the spring while running track. It’s not entirely surprising, given that he ran 90 miles a week.

After the discovery of each stress fracture, his doctor ordered him to take some time off. Even after taking nearly two months to rest, he was able to return in time for the track season and still place third at the state meet in the 3200.

“There aren’t that many kids I’ve worked with who have worked as hard as he does,” Johnston says. “He’s a great kid.”

That hard work extends to scholastics, in which Seth has achieved a 4.5 GPA weighted, and a 4.0 GPA unweighted. The extra weight comes from AP biology, AP European history, AP environmental science, and AP government and politics.

All of this puts him in good standing to achieve that ultimate student goal…scholarship money.

“I’ve been talking to some colleges,” Hirsch says nonchalantly. “Portland, Wisconsin. Stanford, Georgetown. Columbia University in New York. All of them have good distance programs.”

Right at the moment, it’s all just talk. Once July hits, the calls will likely start to pour in. (Law mandates that July before one’s senior year is the earliest a student can be recruited.)

He’s ready for it, he’s interested in it, and he knows what to expect. His sister, Sidney Hirsch, runs at Wichita State University.

Sidney ran for her college this fall season, even though she suffered from plantar fasciitis in both feet. This affliction is an inflammation of the tissue along the bottom of the foot that connects the heel bone to the toes.

It was Sidney who got Seth into running.

“My sister ran for Omaha Racers,” Seth says of discovering he wanted to run at age 10. “I went to some practices with her and I wanted to do it.”

Seth used to play soccer, but he quit this past year to focus on running.

“I just liked it the most, so I just decided to focus on that,” Hirsch says nonchalantly.

“I thought he was pretty good,” says his mother, Liz Hirsch. “The coach and everyone else was like ‘wow—this boy can run.’ I like that he’s found the passion for this.”