Ending on a positive note: Men’s cross-country regionals and moving forward
Photo courtesy of Cameron Stober
Carolyn Christopher, Staff Writer
North Greenville University men’s cross-country team placed 18th overall in the Southeast Regional competition at Milliken Arboretum in Spartanburg, S.C. Working up to the competition took dedication, evaluation and hard work for the entire team.
“Going into this season, we had a lot of question marks,” said head coach Cameron Stober. “We knew we had a lot of talented guys on the team, but a lot of those guys had a lot of injuries over the past couple years, so we really didn’t know where our potential was.”
Matthew Heath, senior social studies major, was the second Trailblazer to cross the finish line at the regional competition. He finished his final cross-country season with a time of 33:40.
The team’s training for the season began in May of 2024. Coach Stober’s training plan focused on muscle volume and endurance. Running mileage gradually increased and workout exercises were implemented. Heath believes training is a crucial part of success.
“If you put in the work, you get the results,” Heath said. “The results will show I had a good last race . . . I think we ended it on a positive note. I was really happy with the attitudes we had at the end of the race. You have to have that mindset: ‘Hey, let’s give everything that we’ve got.’ We had nothing to lose.”
Heath commented on both the strengths and weaknesses of the race, highlighting the great accomplishments for the team as a whole. Milliken proved to be a difficult course over Heath’s running career, found to be even more difficult as a 10k for regionals.
“Milliken is a really hard course to run on . . . and a lot of the guys that weren’t top five actually came out and did really good,” said Heath.
Over the last three years, Heath has watched the cross-country team progress. He noticed their improved endurance, mentalities and running times from when he first came to NGU. He has seen both himself and his teammates progress thanks to the dedication of Stober.
“Coach Stober, in the last 10 years, has put in a lot of work to go to where he’s at now as a coach. He’s helped me as an athlete, as a person, to be better. His training has helped me to run a lot better because my times that I was running, I’ve dropped minutes off that time,” Heath said.
Stober commented on the difficulty of cross-country as a sport and how important commitment and diligence is over the course of the season. He recognizes that the mental side of the sport is just as important as being diligent to the physical side of it.
“Running is a mental sport . . . it’s a lot more mental than a lot of people take it. For me, running was an outlet, so that’s what helped me even in high school,” Health said.
At the season’s end, Stober is working to reevaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the team as well as himself as a coach.
“Right now, I’m going through the process of doing individual meetings with everybody on the team. That gives them the opportunity to give me their feedback on how the season went, what worked well for them and what didn’t work well for them with training,” Stober said.
Looking towards the next season, Stober is hoping to utilize the athletes’ feedback to better the team and reach their goals. By focusing on their fundamentals, the team can continue to grow while staying in shape, being diligent and learning more.
“Moving forward, we [will] just stick to the things we always focus on, which is being consistent and then committed,” Stober said.
The diligence of the team has earned praise from Stober and fellow teammates. Runners are looking forward to a strong start to the track season after a dedicated cross country season.
“I’m proud of the guys. I’m really proud of how they responded after a tough conference meet. The way we were able to finish the season carries a lot of momentum going into the track season,” Stober said. “I know they’re looking forward to that, and I think there will be some good things coming.”
