Many athletes will go through most of their journey without bringing home one state title, much less two. The Creekside boys cross country team said, “Challenge accepted,” and did just that, bringing home back-to-back state championships. Now five of their seniors will be running collegiate cross country and track after graduation.
Matthew Clark – University of Florida
Nick Deal – University of Florida
Jackson Storey – Columbia University
Reece Duff – Stetson University
Alex Bolt – West Virginia University Institute of Technology
Bringing home consecutive 3A state championships took a combination of work-ethic, passion, talent, and faith.
“The state meet really started over the summer,” head coach Eric Frank said. “Our program has a pretty intense summer training schedule that has been a big part of our success. However, going into the state meet the boys knew it was going to be a challenging race with a lot of excellent competition.”
When training started all the way back last summer, the veterans led the newbies knowing they had a chance to win a repeat state title. A lot of their training was building up to the week of the Brevard Distance Running Camp that literally challenged them with a new mountain to climb every day. Before the final and most difficult run at the camp in North Carolina, the whole team met up to establish their goals for the upcoming season. The collaborative goal-setting is a tradition Creekside boys cross country does every year, and this year was no different. After over two hours of in-depth discussion, the team set goals that were challenging, just like the final mountain they were about to climb.
After preseason training and summer camp, the season approached quickly. Two of the team’s top runners and seniors, Reece Duff and Jackson Storey, battled difficult injuries during the season, but about a month before districts both boys fought through their injuries to come back. Creekside won the district tournament by a large margin and the boys set personal records. They came back stronger than ever and ready to win.
Another bump in the road came at the regional meet, though, when Creekside lost to their biggest rival, Chiles, by just nine points. The loss gave the boys more motivation and fuel than ever to bring home the biggest title at the state championship right around the corner.
“Before each race, I just remind them to trust their abilities and to never give up,” Frank said. “Our team has a mantra created by my assistant coach, Chris Navarro. It is ‘Body, Mind, Heart.’ We say this before each race. You must have all three to be successful. ‘Body’ we can work on every day with our training. ‘Mind’ is preparing before a meet and bringing a positive attitude to the starting line. Lastly there is ‘Heart’ that is all about race day. ‘Heart’ is the wanting it more than anyone else.”
With just a mile to go at the state meet, Creekside was losing, that is until Jackson Storey changed the pace and finished his race in nearly under 16 minutes. Then, to top it off Alex Bolt solidified bringing home the state title again when he finished twelve places in front of Chile’s No. 5 runner. Creekside cross country became state champs – again.
Run, Creekside, Run
By: Courtney Wagner
