ATHENS – Black-rubber soles pound the red track for the ninth lap in a row. Clarke Central’s boys cross country team comes around the bend after running yet another 400 meters. Somehow, the runners shave a couple seconds off their times with each lap.
They hunch over between quick sips of water during the one-minute rest break. “Y’all have five more seconds,” assistant coach Joshua Williams says. The runners wipe off their sweat before they get set to run their last lap of the day. Their heavy breathing says that they’re tired, but their eyes tell another story.
In their sights: Clarke Central’s first cross country state championship in nearly half a century.
On Friday at the 2024 GHSA Cross Country State Championships in Carrollton, the Gladiators will be vying for their first title since 1976. They’ve won regionals four years in a row, but their highest finish at states was second in 2022. They came in third last year.
“We’ve been second, we’ve been third,” head coach Erica Cascio says. “Now it’s time to be first in the state as a team.”
Clarke Central’s top five finishers at states last year — led by JD Daniel, who came in third – are on this year’s boys team.
“We coaches are not disappointed in the effort that those runners made,” Cascio says. “We’re hoping, because it’s a lot of the same runners coming back, that they can apply what they learned last year at state to this year’s race.”
Before practice, Cascio has a talk with her team. While the Gladiators have been practicing all year for their numerous meets across Georgia, she explains that now is the time to be more disciplined and intentional than they ever have been. With states coming up, the mental and physical preparation is ramping up.
Daniel leads his teammates every time they finish a training lap. Towards the end of practice, Daniel is running the 400 meters in 60 seconds. He’s the first one to come around the track, and the last one speaking to his teammates, hyping them up before running the next lap.
Daniel became the No. 1 runner as a sophomore, after senior Beck Wolf-Hardy fractured his foot in early August 2023. Daniel has become a natural leader on the team.
“Workouts like this are a real either make-it-or-break-it moment, where some people will be discouraged by how hard it is, and some people will be amped up because of their performance,” Daniel says. “So, I really hope to pick up people who are feeling down or upset about these workouts and try to encourage them.
Last season, Daniel finished the state meet in 16 minutes, 20 minutes. This season, Daniel has broken the school record for the 5K with a 15:05.07. He is working towards a state title differently.
“For the most part, everything I’m doing is well-planned and scheduled, and I’ve been thinking about it weeks in advance in comparison to last year,” Daniel says.”I’ve been getting so much better, exponentially better.”
After his 10 practice laps, senior Karl Ritzler immediately lays down on the track. Ritzler stretches his hurting hamstrings next to Williams. Last season, Ritzler placed 34th at the state meet.
“Physically, I’m worlds faster than I was last year, which is a great feeling,” Ritzler says. “Last year, I was running like 17:30s, at this point now I’m running 16:30s, one 15:40. I know that I can run very fast.”
The faster times have given Ritzler new expectations heading into states. He says he felt “a little bit more pressure” last year, when his placement would have a greater impact on the team’s finish.
“Now, mostly the pressure is just me expecting myself to be top five, expecting to beat some of these guys that I want to beat. I’m not as worried because I know that I’m stronger. I know that I’m faster,” Ritzler says.
During the workouts, Williams is yelling out the team’s times second by second. This is Williams’ first year on the team. He has seen the team’s motivation to win states since August.
“They’ve been putting in the work since I first got here, so (I’m) giving them that encouragement and just giving them that push to know they can do it,” Williams says.
After four years of winning regionals, the Gladiators are hungry to win the state title. They’re prepared and determined to end not only their own drought but the school’s 48-year drought.
“I don’t think it’s gonna be easy, but it would be incredible,” Ritzler says.
Samantha Lichter is a student in the University of Georgia’s undergraduate Sports Media Certificate program.
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