The Eagle boys cross country team gave it everything they had in hopes of reaching the state meet on Thursday at Regionals.
The field went out pretty fast and Mindt and A. Smith went out with the leaders in a pretty intelligent fashion. Collin and Avery had to go out. They put themselves in position to make a difference for their teammates. While it was a fast pace (5:17 first mile). They held there own. It paid off for Collin who qualified individually for the state meet.
I cannot say enough about the improvement we have seen from especially Collin Mindt and Theo Toler this year. Collin went from his freshman year at another school running 24 minutes. Sophomore year 18:30 to this season being in the low 17s and high 16s. Theo's progression very similar over the last two seasons. These two guys have improved so much. Collin getting to go to state is just a testament to the hard work that Theo, Collin, and Avery put in day after day, all summer long, and throughout the seasons. While Collin is the advancer and deserves all credit: Theo and Avery have a lot to do with his success. They are the definition of what eagle cross country is all about. High achieving in the classroom, character, community service and being selfless.
The eagles brought out all the stops trying to advance. Keith Smith ran his first race since Mid September trying to help his teammates advance. Keith has hit cross training so hard this season. With reaggravating Achilles tendonitis Keith swam and biked for the past two months. Everyday for hours. Just trying to get some type of fitness. Keith also a huge definition of being a team player. Keith could have just hung up the spikes and said his season was over but that's just not who Keith is. I commend his huge effort on his own much of the season to be here for his teammates.
In the end it wasn't quite enough for the boys as Rodriguez, Romero, and Blair attempted to get as many guys as they could to advance but they fell 12 points shy of advancement.
Collin Mindt will run at FSU Saturday morning at the championships with a scheduled start time of 8:10-.
