boy cross country – Syndication Server

Daniel Simmons wins Gatorade National Boys Cross Country POY for 2nd year in a row

Daniel Simmons became just the third boys racer in high school to win the Gatorade National Cross Country Player of the Year award twice.

Daniel Simmons, who followed last year’s illustrious accolades with 10 victories and six course records this year, was named the 2023-24 Gatorade National Boys Cross Country Player of the Year on Monday, the second year in a row he took home the title.

Fellow two-time Gatorade National Player of the Year Grant Fisher came to American Fork High School High School (Utah) to surprise Simmons with the announcement.

“The Gatorade Player of the Year Program celebrates the nation’s top high school athletes for the impact they make on the field of play, as well as in the classroom and within their communities,” said Gatorade president and general manager Michael Del Pozzo. “Daniel has demonstrated that he has what it takes to serve as a role model for future generations in sport and beyond.”

This season, Simmons won 10 straight races, including the Utah Class 6A championship and the Nike Cross Southwest Regional Championship. In the Nike regional, he won by 10 seconds with a time of 14:41.13 in the three-mile time, the fastest in the nation, according to Gatorade.

He broke the 14:50 barrier five times and recorded the fastest three-mile time in the nation at the NXR and had the fastest 5K at 14:44.0. He broke the record of six different courses throughout the season.

“Only the third two-time Gatorade National Boys Cross Country winner in program history, Simmons owns an amazing aerobic engine and the race-day tenacity that produced convincing victories against the nation’s top harriers last fall. Compiling a season’s racing resume like his in what many consider to be a Golden Age of interscholastic distance running is both rare and highly impressive.”

His only blemish was finishing 13th in the Nike Cross Nationals. After being ranked No. 1 on MileSplits rankings for the entire season, he finished below Nike champion Drew Griffith.

“I think it was a balanced season to have that,” Simmons said to MileSplit, “not perfect.”

Simmons, a BYU signee, has a 3.93 GPA entering the final semester of high school. He has volunteered at the local public library and reads to children during the weekly story hour. He also participates in community service initiatives through his church’s youth group.

He plans to run in his first semester at the university and then go on a mission with the LDS church, according to MileSplit.

Simmons is only the third runner to win two Gatorade National Boys Cross Country Player of the Year awards, according to the company. The others are Fisher, who won in 2013 and 2014, and Lukas Verzbicas, who won in 2009 and 2010, per MileSplit.

Elizabeth Leachman, Drew Griffith win 2023 Foot Locker Cross Country Championships

Sophomore Elizabeth Leachman and Notre Dame commit Drew Griffith took home the gold at the 2023. Foot Locker Cross Country Championships

On Saturday, the 2023 Foot Locker Cross Country champions won their races with a similar tactic: Boerne Champion High School (San Antonio, Texas) sophomore Elizabeth Leachman and Butler (Pa.) High School senior Drew Griffith watched a leader jump ahead, waited for them to tire, and then made their move to the finish line, where they crossed the finish line in first place.

Leachman, just the seventh sophomore to win this race and first since 2018, finished in 16:50.7, while Griffith finished in 15:06.9.

In the first race of the day, Leachman used the disappointment from her race the week before to plan her strategy. On Dec. 2, she finished 15th in the Nike Cross Country Nationals in Portland after starting fast but wearing down over the final 1,000 meters. She focused on that experience as she saw two dozen girls pull ahead of her on Saturday at the start of the race.

Stay patient. Keep pace. Don’t go on a surge that’ll wear her out later.

It didn’t take long before she overtook the majority of the girls, and around the one-mile mark, she was behind only Michigan State commit Rachel Forsyth, who finished her first mile in 5:00.

“I tried to focus on not doing too many hard surges because sometimes it’s really hard for me to recover from those. So I let myself just slowly creep up to her,” Leachman said. “When she made those surges to try to pass me back, I just let her do it until she was tired enough out that I could kind of go and take it.”

The strategy paid off, as Leachman crossed the finish line without a competitor in sight. She finished 13.8 seconds ahead of the second-place Allie Zealand and 17.6 seconds ahead of Forsyth.

It was a remarkable finish, not only because of Leachman’s age, but because just a year ago, she was dealing with hip and hamstring issues, including tendonitis and bursitis. With cross-training activities like elliptical machines and aqua-jogs, as well as joining her school swim team and a club swim team, she regained form in a blazing-fast period of time.

She ran with support from her friends and family and wrote Jeremiah 29:11 on her arm to remind her of the plan set before her.

“Having them behind me helps me know that I’m not defined by my running, but it also gives me the power and the ability to go run for a greater purpose,” Leachman said.

While Leachman won as a sophomore, boys champion Griffith didn’t start competing in high school cross country until he was a sophomore.

He was the top runner on the seventh grade team in junior high, but a growth spurt in eighth grade caused knee pains that forced him off the track until his sophomore year. Nevertheless, after swimming competitively for a decade, he had the aerobic fitness to jump right back in.

Griffith needed all that strength this year as a group of runners worked to catch up to leader Ty Steorts in the second half of the race. On the final hill, a group of five boys clustered with the chance for a single runner to pull away.

“I just saw the guys kind of start to stutter up the top of the hill. That was when I was like, ‘Alright, these guys are fading, I’m ready to make my move,’” Griffith said. “I just knew that all these guys were hurting as much as I am. On the hill, I knew maybe I’m feeling a little bit better than these guys, and it was time to go.”

Griffith felt himself cramping but surged forward, guiding himself with the experience on the hill he gained last year when he competed in this championship race as a junior.

He pulled ahead of the group alongside Berkley Nance, who challenged Griffith as the finish line approached. A little more than 500 meters out, Nance fell back, and Griffith pulled ahead, beating second-place finisher Ryan Pajak by 5.2 seconds and Tamrat Gavenas by 9.7 seconds. Nance finished fourth and Steorts sixth, sandwiching fifth-place finisher Brayden Marshall.

Griffith is committed to run at Notre Dame. He credited the coach and the team for creating an environment that felt like home when he visited.

Until then, he has a few more months to finish high school as the Foot Locker Boys National Champion.

“I’m super pumped to come here and perform at the highest stage, and to be able to come away with the win is just the greatest feeling ever,” Griffith said.

Colorado runs Champs Sports XC national championships as two commits win title

The University of Colorado ran the field on Saturday with commits Karrie Baloga and Kole Mathison winning the Champs Sports National title.

The University of Colorado cross country team is feeling the holiday joy this season as a pair of future Buffaloes won the 43rd Champs Sports Cross Country National Championships on Saturday.

Cornwall Central High School (Orange County, N.Y.) senior Karrie Baloga finished the girls race with a winning time of 16:49.2, cutting 40 seconds off her time in last year’s run. On the boys side, Carmel High School (Ind.) senior Kole Mathison broke the 15-minute mark in his victory, finishing in 14:56.6.

Both used their experience running this course last year, at which time it was called the Eastbay championships, to their advantage on this run.

“It’s tough to come out here without any knowledge of it because there are some places where you can make some mistakes. To have that first year, to come out here and race at the highest level, and to learn from my mistakes made last year was definitely a big advantage coming in,” Mathison said.

Kole Mathison, PhotoRun for Champs Sports Cross Country

Mathison said he started his run last year too fast and used too much energy, causing him to slow down on the second loop. He finished in fifth place.

Baloga, who finished in fourth last year, said that in addition to knowing the course layout, the experience helped her deal with the time difference between New York and San Diego and eat better coming into the event.

Karrie Baloga, PhotoRun for Champs Sports Cross Country

She felt good from the gun on Saturday, pushing herself to the front through the first 800 meters and then pushing her pace on the first hill. She maintained her speed as challengers approached throughout the run and made another move at the bottom of the second hill.

“This wasn’t a race where I was going to be able to sit back and just work my way up,” Baloga said. “I knew that if I was to push the pace a little bit to where I felt my body was comfortable, other girls were going to struggle.”

Mathison took a different tactic based on last year’s run. He was patient before attacking and took the lead on the hill midway through the race.

“The plan was to take the lead at some point in the race and then after that, never give it back,” he said.

Mathison finished first in seven races with Carmel High School this season and placed fourth last week at the NXN Nike Cross Nationals with a time of 14:55.5. He overcame an inflamed peroneal tendon in his right foot that nagged him while training in recent weeks, an injury he said felt fine on Saturday.

Baloga tied a bow on her season that started in August at the World U20 Championships in Cali, Colombia. As the second-youngest competitor, she finished 11th in the 3000-meter steeplechase. She said that racing against older runners helped her this season.

“I was able to meet a lot of new people and get to experience racing on the world level,” she said. “That was really an eye-opening because it shows what I’m capable of.”

Each racer thanked their friends, family and coaches for their support along their journeys. Baloga’s parents raced at the University of Delaware and provided a strong support system alongside her brothers, Michael and Jack. Mathison said that having his family cheer him on was important to him.

“I thank God for all the amazing people he’s put in my life to get me to this point,” Mathison said.

Now, Colorado gets not just one but two national champions in its incoming class. Mathison pointed to the familial environment and renowned training facilities, and Baloga added that the location in Boulder and the high altitude played a role in her decision. She said that associate head coach Heather Burroughs was at the championship race, watching her future runners compete.

At the conclusion of the interview with Baloga and following a final congratulations, she paused and said she had one more thing to say. “Can you add Sko Buffs to the bottom?”

Sko Buffs.

Q&A: Colin Sahlman, Kiki Rice named 2022 Gatorade Athletes of the Year

With championships and records under their belts, Colin Sahlman and Kiki Rice were named the 2022 Gatorade Athletes of the Year.

After announcing winners for individual sports in each state, Gatorade has named its best of the best. On Tuesday, Kiki Rice and Colin Sahlman were named the Gatorade Athletes of the Year.

Over Rice’s four years at Sidwell Friends School (Washington, D.C.), she helped the girls basketball team rise to an unbeatable group. She was the point guard for the 30-0 Quakers, who went undefeated and won the State Champions Invitational, a season in which Rice averaged 15.8 points, 7.0 rebounds, 5.1 assists and 2.6 steals per game as a senior.

She was named co-MVP of the McDonald’s All-American Game and played on the gold-medal-winning U18 national team in the FIBA U18 Americas.

Sahlman continues the legacy of Newbury Park High School track and field dominance. Look in the record book and you will see his name splattered across the pages.

His 5,000-meter time of 14:03.29 set a national high school record. His 3,200-meter time of 8:33.32 set a national high school record. His mile time of 3:56.24 is the third-best in prep history, and his 1,500-meter time of 3:39.59 is fourth-best.

Sahlman will race at Northern Arizona University next season while Rice will head across the country to play basketball at UCLA.

They ended their high school careers at the pinnacle, with championships and recognition as the Gatorade Boys and Girls Athlete of the Year.

Following the announcement, USA TODAY High School Sports participated in a Q&A with the two athletes that centered on sports, the classroom, community service and get-to-know-you ice breakers. Answers are below and have been lightly edited for clarity.

Q: Congratulations on being named the Gatorade Athletes of the Year. Has it been a goal for either of you?

Rice: Yes, it has been. It has been one of mine.

Sahlman: Definitely, for sure. Seeing my teammate [Nico Young] get it two years ago kind of motivated me to try to get it this year.

What’s your best high school memory?

Rice: From a sports standpoint, I’d say one of them would definitely be winning the national championship this past year with my high school team. My freshman year, we started [the season] off, and we definitely weren’t nationally ranked. We weren’t even winning our league. And to now to be national champions, to be playing on ESPN, it was a moment of huge growth and I was super proud of where we got.

Sahlman: Pretty much the highlighted memories that I can think of are athletic achievements. It’s just been non-stop. My favorite memory would be winning the Running Lane National Championships this last year with my team. We went 1-2-3-6 for our top four and it was just cool to share that with them. To have the top three runners in the nation on the same team was pretty cool.

What are your favorite subjects in school?

Rice: My favorite subject is history.

Sahlman: My favorite class I took was a photography class my sophomore year.

What are your go-to karaoke songs?

Sahlman: I don’t do karaoke (laughs).

Rice: I’m not a huge karaoke person either, but maybe “Free Mind” by Tems.

Sahlman: I’m not really a huge music guy, I don’t know.

If there was a movie based on your life or career, who would play you?

Sahlman: Younger Leonardo DiCaprio.

Rice: Maybe Zendaya.

If there was a zombie apocalypse, who would be three pro athletes you would want on your team?

Sahlman: I’d pick some big football players (laughs).

Rice: (also laughs) Conor McGregor, LeBron James and Alex Morgan.

Sahlman: I’d probably have to go with Shaquille O’Neal, Jakob Ingebrigtsen and … I’ll go with Clay Matthews.

I’m surprised you didn’t just go with your teammates and run away from the zombies.

Sahlman: You said professional athletes! I would choose my brother. My brother’s crazy. … He’s an animal.

What are three words to describe your style on the track/court?

Rice: Energetic, competitive and attacker.

Sahlman: I’d have to go with fearless, determined and passionate.

Is there a charity or cause that either you’re involved in or you’d like to get involved with down the road?

Rice: One group that I work with is SportsMom Foundation, a local charity in Washington, D.C. and the DMV area. It’s a charity that helps serve underprivileged minorities, black girls, basically have access to training and basketball equipment and helps fund AAU teams because those are really expensive. It’s something that I donated the money we got for winning the award to.

Sahlman: I’m not currently part of a charity, but if I were to join, it would be animal shelters. I’m a big dog lover, animal lover, so if I were to help with anything it would definitely be that.

If you could give a piece of advice to your younger self, what would it be?

Rice: I would say to get out of my comfort zone a bit and take some risks. Don’t be afraid to fail.

Sahlman: I wouldn’t say anything to my younger self. I motivated myself through all these years. I developed the character that I am today. I would just let him make the same decisions I did and just be that person.