The 5-foot-10, 155-pound senior won the New Hampshire Meet of Champions this past season, breaking the tape in a personal-best and state-record 15:03.40 over 5K to finish 48.1 seconds ahead of his next-closest competitor and leading the Bobcats to a sixth-place finish as a team. O'Brien followed up by taking silver at the New England Cross Country Championships with a time of 15:20.93 and bronze at the Foot Locker Northeast Regional championships in 15:37.20. He qualified for the national Foot Locker Cross Country Championships, where he finished 38th.
O'Brien has maintained a 3.8 GPA in the classroom. He will attend Dartmouth University in the fall, where he will run cross country and track.
An active member of his school's student government as well as the Spanish Club, O'Brien has donated his time to the "Support the Track" initiative to authorize the construction of a track, turf field, and baseball diamond at Oyster River. He has also volunteered locally at the high school Open House and Freshman Orientation as well as on behalf of a children's basketball event. "In the past year, Patrick rose from being one of the top runners to unbeatable in his state and became one of the best cross country runners in the country," said Oyster River head coach Scott McGrath. "He set divisional and Meet of Champions records, besting the times of past athletes who have later gone on to become professional distance runners. This season, he won the Meet of Champions by 48 seconds, the largest margin in the history of the meet held at the Mine Falls course, and he qualified individually for Foot Locker nationals."
