As the boys cross country team nears sectionals with promising times to qualify for state, they prepare for an important last meet in the regular season on Oct.18 and sectionals on Nov.1.
Under new head coach Isaac Seals the team placed 3rd in the APS XC City Championships meet and has strong times going into sectionals. The team has seen lots of progress from past seasons. Seals said the team has focused on being consistent, teamwork and adapting.
“When I joined this team at the beginning of the season, I knew they would be a strong team,” Seals said. “I was pretty good friends with former Midtown coach, coach Kramer, and I knew that he had built a strong program. Midtown is a high achieving school, and even after just one season of coaching these kids, I can tell they have incredible drive and passion.”
Seals previously coached cross country and track at Riverwood for over 30 years and brought a training approach with the goal of mirroring race conditions. He said it has seemed to make the team more comfortable on meet days.
“Previously, I coached at Riverwood and found that training along the Chattahoochee River helped the runners because it replicated race conditions better than a track,” Seals said. “When I came to Midtown, we started using the Active Oval at Piedmont Park more, and I think it’s really helped the team simulate real race terrain, build confidence and develop better awareness.”
Senior Cameron Collier is ranked first in the state for the 5k on the Southern Coastal Cross Country Performance List and has been a member of the team since his freshman year. Collier agreed with Seals and said the team’s consistency and hard work has made it the strongest the team has been over his four years.
“My freshman year we had our best team that I had experienced up until this year,” Collier said. “After that, we were a very young team, and each year up until now has been a progression into an even better team this year than it was my freshman year.”
Senior Rohan Morel said teamwork has been crucial this season for success.
“This team is a lot different from past seasons,” Morel said. “This team actually works really well together because all of us are around the same times. So we train together, cheer together, and race together. We don’t go out on our own.”
Freshman Vihaan Devireddy said being a part of the team has taught him a lot about dedication and made him a better overall runner.
“As a freshman, being part of a state contender varsity team is something I am extremely proud of,” Devireddy said. “It’s earned by hard work from four to six every day, the early morning races I’ve raced in, and the growing dedication expressed by every guy on the team day by day.”
Morel said the team has adapted really well after having to adjust to a new coach which at first affected the team’s focus, but has now made the team even stronger.
“At the beginning of the season we had just got a new coach, Coach Seals, and the team was a mess, so overall our mental state wasn’t great,” Morel said. “Coach Seals has really grown this team from the start of the season, and now we really think we can place well at sectionals and even state.
Devireddy said the team has shown support for one another through every meet, course and practice.
“Coming from exceptionally fast courses to downright slow courses, the team has shown support no matter the race and no matter the time,” Devireddy said. “We’ve pushed through challenging workouts, pushing each other to limits that have been shown to highly improve our performances. Seeing our teammates and coaches cheering beside the course for every single runner has given us more confidence and encouragement to push past the finish line.”
Collier said younger runners are already developing into strong competitors for the future.
“Confidence has grown through experience and more practice on the high school level for our younger runners,” Collier said. “Our freshmen are better than our sophomores right now and right there with most juniors. We have a very good group that should continue to develop just as our top seniors did.”
The top 12 teams at sectionals, which is held on Nov. 1 at Carrollton High School, will advance to the State Meet. Morel said the team’s focus for sectionals is very simple: qualify for state.
“Going into sectionals, I am trying to keep my mindset and the team’s mindset as just qualifying to make states,” Morel said. “We shouldn’t worry about what exact times we get, we can focus on that after, all we need to do is qualify at this meet.”
At the Alexander/Asics Invitational on Oct. 4, all eight boys ran under 18 minutes. Devireddy believed this boosted the team’s confidence.
“Having all eight runners perform exceptional times under 18, and of course Cam performing an astounding time under 15, has put the team’s average time around 16:30,” Devireddy said. “I’ve been noticing a much more enthusiastic and delighted team environment at practice as people came off of great times that no one expected. Having great performances at Asics has elevated the team’s confidence for great state performances.”
Seals said he is optimistic about the team’s potential as they head into sectionals and state. He said he has high expectations, but the focus must stay on preparation and consistency.
“I couldn’t be happier with how the team performed at the Alexander/Asics Invitational and expectations are high,” Seals said. “I really believe the team will do well at sectionals and advance to state. The boys team has been working hard and should perform well, and I think Cameron is definitely in contention for an individual state title with all the effort he’s put in this season.”
