Behind the Balance: Ben Hagerich ’26 — Keydet Cross Country

Virginia Military Institute’s cadet-athletes have to juggle cadet life, heavy academic course loads, and their NCAA Division I sport. Committed to both academic and athletic pursuits, balancing their rigorous schedule in both sports and school requires a certain level of commitment and discipline. Behind the Balance is a series that focuses on those cadet-athletes and how they handle the hurdles of the day-to-day. 

Prestigious people attend Virginia Military Institute, claims Ben Hagerich ’26 — and he was determined to be one of them. That drive, along with the chance to run cross country and track, drew him to the Institute. 

After being offered a scholarship, the computer science major attended an official visit and got to stay in barracks. He said it was an exciting night and got to see a lot of the inner workings of VMI. 

Although coming in as a rat, he said his biggest critic was himself. He wasn’t hitting the times he thought he would while running. He said it was challenging, physically and mentally.  

“As a rat I was, I was probably pretty scared to do a lot of things, whereas now there’s like no cowardice behind anything,” Hagerich admitted. “I would beat myself up a lot as a rat because I wasn’t performing the way I wanted to. It’s hard to expect yourself to do good. Something that’s changed is how I look at performance going to VMI. I’m going have to go through some tough stuff, so you have to be able to balance that with also being able to be an athlete.” 

Cadet-athletes at VMI not only have their responsibilities with their selected sport but cadet duties on top of that. Cadets are also required to take physical fitness classes twice a week, participate in ROTC all four years, prepare for room and uniform inspections, practice for parade, guard duty, and more. 

On top of his responsibilities with athletics, he is also the cadet in charge for the VMI Programming Club and a cyber captain.  

“The number one thing for me when it comes to balancing all that is probably that I’m passionate about all of them, so I really enjoy them,” he explained. “It allows me to sort of cultivate my own schedule. I love doing all these things. I know programming club is always on Wednesday, so I’ll know I’ll be able to lead that and create a lesson for that. While also knowing I’ve got to perform in track or cross country over the weekend. I know I need to eat right on top of that. I take things one step at a time.” 

As a mid-distance runner, he’s averaging about 35-40 miles a week. He got into running at the age of 8. He and his twin brother played baseball. While his twin stayed with baseball, Hagerich found more joy in running the bases. 

“I think your teammates make it everything. It’s so much fun. Then the competitiveness … I love the feeling of crossing that line first and scoring points for my team. It makes it so much fun competing against the best people, and being able to say that you gave 100% in a race that lasts for cross country about 25 minutes, and on the track upwards of two minutes … it’s pretty crazy how all that is all tied together,” he said. “Giving your all every single time you step out there and you get one shot at it.” 

He runs by leading by example for his teammates. He tends to be one of the stronger runners on the team, so he hopes he’s able to push others.  

“I always think that everyone behind me … if I can be a good example for everyone ahead of me then I know my teammates behind me are going to be encouraged to either try to keep up with me, or know that if I’m pushing strong, then they can do it as well,” he said.  

Although his days are long and he has a lot of responsibilities, he’s about to juggle it all knowing he has a strong support system around him. He also tends to go with the flow and not let the stresses of the everyday get to him.  

“In high school over four years, I barely knew the other events. I barely knew the sprinters, the jumpers, hurdlers or the throwers,” he admitted. “When I was a rat, in the first four months, I knew basically everyone on the team, and everyone was buddy-buddy. I’d never seen something like that before. Seeing us all at the event groups, we were always rooting for each other. It was so cool to see that everyone was like an actual team and helping each other out. And whether that’s a college thing or a VMI thing, I’m not sure, but I love it.” 

His hope after VMI is to secure a cybersecurity analyst role or go into network engineering with possibly the Department of Defense or another company that branches off the government. He is set to graduate in May.