Springs Valley Community High School

The past couple of years have been ones in which the Springs Valley Cross Country program has been littered with young talent, but hasn’t had much experience. Runners have come up from the junior-high level and taken on important roles quickly. The Blackhawks expect to reap the benefits of that this year as some of those young runners are now older and are ready to take a leap, though they’re still mostly juniors and sophomores. “It’s kind of a two-edged sword because we are veteran and now I get to train them to new levels that I haven’t trained kids to before. They’re reaching levels that we’ve never seen,” Springs Valley coach Derek Freeman said. “It’s evident during track season when they’re breaking school records and that’s huge for us. It’s exciting because we still don’t have a senior on the team so we’re still relatively kind of younger.” One runner everyone will be watching is Grant Brown. Now a junior, Brown became the first cross country runner in school history to receive all-state honors last year after making it to the semi-state round of the state tournament. That success looks to be breeding more success as it hasn’t only motivate Brown, it’s motivated his teammates to step up their game as well. “It’s done a lot for our program. It’s pretty exciting,” Freeman said. “I’ve seen him be more motivated this summer than he ever has been and he’s been very motivated in the past. He has new levels, he wants to go and be all-state two more times and he wants to go to the State Finals, but it’s also motivated others. Alan (Marshall) now wants to be all-state and Carson (Brown) wants to follow in his brother’s footsteps and be all-state. They’ve raised their expectations. “It opened eyes across the board. We’re capable of being just as good as these bigger schools and bigger programs around us.” Alongside Brown, the Blackhawks return another 2021 regional qualifier, Alan Marshall. Also a junior, Marshall has established himself as one of the program’s key competitors over the last two years. Over the years, his times have been right there with his classmate’s and he expects to find the same level of success as Brown. According to Freeman, Marshall had the ability to qualify for semi-state as well, but put a lot of pressure on himself and had a bad regional meet. It’s something that Marshall has learned from and is motivating him to come back stronger this season. “He’s kind of taken that, embraced it and moved forward with a mentality that he belongs there,” Freeman said. “He’s done a lot, he’s traveled, he’s put in a lot of work. He trained for a week out west at elevation, he’s kind of putting in the next-level stuff.” Sophie Harris is expected to be the one leading the way for Springs Valley’s girls this season. She just missed out on qualifying for regional last season after earning All-PLAC honors, slipping and falling at the starting line before missing the cut by one position. Now a sophomore, she’s not just looking to repeat her successes from 2021, she’s looking to add to them. “The school record is on her radar, but I also think she has a bitter taste in her mouth about the expectations she had of going to regional,” Freeman said. “That bitterness has driven her and she had a great track season. She keeps pushing, she’s all-in, so I’m very excited.” Outside of Brown and Marshall, the boys’ team will consist of Carson Brown and Matthew Woolsey. Freeman believes that Carson Brown’s on the edge of being a bigtime contributor as just a sophomore and that once Woolsey adjusts to competing at the varsity level, primarily getting in 5k shape rather than junior-high shape, he should excel as well given his long strides. On the girls’ side, sophomores Keira and Jadyn Lynch are expected to be contributors as is their classmate Alexis Courtney. The Lynch twins have had a particularly strong summer and Freeman believes that the training that they’ve done has left them in a position where it’s a “night and day difference” between where they were as freshmen and where they are as sophomores. The Blackhawks will begin their season on Thursday, Aug. 18 when they hit the road to compete in the Forest Park Invite. As they build up to that event, it’ll be all about conditioning. “We’ve been in that mode of conditioning. The one thing about distance running is the off-season can be boring because it’s just mileage. You just run a lot,” Freeman said. “We’re starting to take a day off of the mileage, we’re starting to add in an extra workout and just kind of slowly build towards our peak mileage.”