BIO

Jon Way is to the Barnstable High School cross country program what Jesse Owens was to the US Olympic Team in Berlin in 1936: the stuff of legends.

Way made his impact felt immediately on the BHS athletic scene as a freshman in the 1989-90 school year, garnering a 1st team spot on the Cape Cod Times All-Cape & Islands Team before going on to set the school’s all-time course record at Hathaway’s Pond – 15:39, a mark that has withstood the test of time to this very day.

For over a decade, Way’s 1992 mile time of 4:22 on the BHS spring track stood as the all-time mark before it was broken in 2003 by 1/100th o fa second by former BHS standout runner Matt Clark. Way remains the sole sophomore in school history to be named a varsity cross country captain. Ranked 5th in the state in the mile in 1992 and 5th in the state in cross country that same year, Way also set the course record at Falmouth on Oct. 28, 1992 (15:43) just five days after setting the all-time course record at BHS at Hathaway’s Pond on Oct. 23, 1992 (15:39).

He placed 15th out of 254 runners in the Kinney Memorial at Van Cortlandt Park in Bronx, NY. Way also placed 2nd at the OCL Meet at Silver Lake High School on 11-3-92, 4th place at the State Coaches Meet on 11-7-92 and 5th place in the All-State Meet on 11-21-92.

It stands with reason that Way’s brand of blazing and enduring speed might translate to the parquet, as then head coach Mark Sullivan was keen to surmise. In the two seasons he earned varsity letters in boys’ basketball in 1991-92 and 1992-93, Way’s Red Raider five amassed records of 12-9 and 13-9 en route to two straight postseason tournament appearances, only to fall to Catholic Memorial and New Bedford in succession. Still, his prowess on the hoop court was enough to earn him the respect of a captaincy his senior year, and combined with his incomparable running skill, he went on to a fantastic four-year career at Division I UMass-Amherst.
After UMass-Amherst, Way earned a master’s degree by documenting the ecology of eastern coyotes in suburban Cape Cod, and then took a job at the Bronx Zoo. He returned to school to earn a PhD combining science and education. Now Way regularly tracks and records the movements of Cape Cod coywolves at night and in the early morning hours, fitting in his research around his job as a park ranger. He has published 30 scientific papers and a book, Suburban Howls. He was inducted Into the BHS Athletic Hall of Fame, Nov. 24, 2012.