Clarke cross country team outruns records

With Clarke’s cross country season underway, the teams are making huge gains on their run times, besting both personal and school records.

“It’s been an amazing season to coach Clarke cross country…We set the goal of making our mantra ‘leave a legacy,’ and I sincerely believe our athletes are doing above and beyond to leave a legacy,” said head coach Thomas Kedley, who is in his second year of coaching.

At every meet so far this year, runners have broken their personal records (PR) from the previous year’s meet at the same course. Most of them are also PRing from meet to meet as well, terrain dependent. At the Central Decatur Invitational on Sept. 9, both the high school and middle school boys’ teams took first place, a first in many years for Clarke.

“Talking with former athletes and parents, it’s been a long time since Clarke has won a cross country meet. That was huge for them, just a big monument to break through,” said Kedley.

At every meet, there has been a boy score in one of the top five spots. With only three girls on the high school team and one on the middle school team, there are not enough runners for them to score as a team, but Kedley said that they are doing fantastic individually, with Claire Jacobsen often placing in the top five or ten at meets.

School records broken

The Central Decatur meet saw junior Micah Domina break into the school’s Top 5 cross country times for 3.1 miles, edging out Gage Beers’ 17:51 set in 2010 with a time of 17:40. Two days later at Pleasantville, Domina not only broke his 17:40 PR, but moved up three spots to tie for the second fastest time in Clarke history with a time of 17:09, previously set by Nick Stuva in 1996.

Right behind Domina was fellow junior DeVante Caldwell, who broke a PR of his own and moved into the number three spot on the board with a time of 17:11, knocking Beers off the board.

“That is just unprecedented in one season, to have kids beat records that have been standing up there since the 90′s, early 2000′s. So amazing,” said Kedley.

On running their names into the school history books, Domina and Caldwell had to say,

“It’s a pretty incredible moment to be a part of [school] history…when I ran that time, I thought I was going slow, I didn’t really understand what I ran until after the meet…this team really helped me perform to the ability that I did, and I’m really proud of us getting won meets now. And I’m really excited to see our times decrease over the season,” said Domina.

“I didn’t really think we were going that fast. I didn’t know I was capable of that…it was just a euphoric moment, [I] felt really happy after. We have another year, so we can see what we can do,” said Caldwell.

The only record left break is that set by Blake Boldon in 1997 with a time of 16:09.

Running club

Kedley credits a lot of the improvements of his athletes to his summer running club - Renegade Running Club.

Open to all Clarke students grades 6-12, the club meets Monday through Friday throughout the summer, minus two weeks, for a one-hour morning workout. Monday is a soft run day and Wednesday is a four-mile run. Tuesdays and Thursdays are for strength and conditioning such as running hills, doing spring workouts, yoga or ab workouts. Fridays are spent in the pool, which while the most popular day according to Kedley is also the hardest day.

“I credit a lot of our success to the off-season workouts these kids have put in…it takes a work ethic,” said Kedley, who teaches runners to put in the work on their mental performance.

He also provides opportunities for kids to go to training camps, clinics and classes, and the running club is active during seasons where non-running sports take place. During cross country season, the team works with Michael Fischels on recovery strength and conditioning, and in two years, Kedley’s teams have had no injuries.

As part of a new tradition of symbolically running the homecoming game ball from the opposing field’s to Clarke’s that started last year, the team not only ran a collective 67 miles from Centerville, but also ran the ball back. All of this was done on their own time outside of practice and meets.

Home meet

Clarke’s singular home cross country meet will be next Tuesday, Sept. 26 at East Lake Park.

The course is one that Kedley says is a true cross country course, as the runners will experience a wide bevy of terrain - grassland, gravel, concrete, sand, etc. Due to this, Kedley said it’s unlikely that any of his runners will break their PRs, but it’s a good place for Clarke and visiting athletes to work their performances leading up to districts and state.

The meet begins at 4:30, and they hope to see a large turnout from the #OneTribe community.