The sun had barely crested the horizon when Brett Winegar headed out the front door of the Bellevue West Coast Hotel at 5 a.m. His 52 fellow tour mebers were sound asleep, but Winegar felt something stronger than a desire to sleep — his desire to win a state championship.
“It was relaxing for me — I must have ran six or eight miles. I don’t like the thought of other people training while I’m not,” said Winegar. “I had to run to keep the edge.”
What would make Winegar go out on an early morning run — hundreds of miles from home, in the middle of band tour? A dedication to his running schedule that has made him one of Montana’s elite athletes.
“We run everyday no matter what,” said Winegar. “We want to win state. I want to also just get better.”
Paul Jorgensen, head coach of the cross-country team since
1972, is in a unique situation. He is not into motivational
speeches; in fact, he rarely has to say anything to them at all. But, what he does have to say may surprise you: slow down.
"I know they don't like to hear this, but I do tell them to do less sometimes," said Jorgensen. "You can over-train and get injured or sometimes by the end of the season you can lose that spark that you have early in the season."
The Flathead Cross Country program spends a lot of time on top. Since 1972, FHS runners have won 15 state championships. They have had nine individual champions since 1981. One year the girls had the top three finishers at state. But never before has the team achieved a national ranking — not until the end of last season.
In November 1997, Harrier Magazine, a nationally distributed running publication, ranked the Braves as the number 24 high school cross-country team in the nation. Two weeks later, the Braves proved they were worthy of the ranking when several runners turned in strong performances at the Foot Locker Championships in Fresno, Calif. Two Braves competed in the prestigious seeded race, both with good showings. Then-junior Brett Winegar finished only 33 seconds behind the winner for a 27th place finish, while Kevin Clary finished 53rd with a time of 16:22.
"I was happy with how I ran, " said Winegar in the December 19 issue of The Arrow. "My goal was to be in the top 30."
The Braves hoped their performance in Fresno would move them up in the final season rankings, but instead the team remained at the number 24 spot, ending one of its most successful seasons in history.
"The boy's team being ranked was a great motivation for this year," said Jorgensen. "Going down to places like Fresno opens their eyes to the national competition — they get to see what everyone else is doing."
When Harrier's pre-season rankings came out on August 25, the Braves were ranked number eight — the highest ranking ever accomplished by a Montana team. And Harrier wasn't the only national publication taking notice. USA Today listed the Braves as one of their "Super 25" high school teams, and the team was also mentioned in Newsweek.
These rankings have raised the stakes on the1998 season.
"It gives us something to live up to; surely it gives us moti- vation and confidence in ourselves," said Clary. "The rank-
ing is a real honor and we hope to improve on it."
Jorgensen says the national rankings have a lot do with how much exposure the teams get along with the times of runners and how well they fare against other ranked opponents.
"They (the rankings) have possibly put an added pressure on the team this year, to maintain on top," said Jorgensen. "Other teams are aware of it and they want to knock us off our pedestal."
But so far the Braves have delivered in 1998, with an untarnished record through three meets. An especially impressive performance was turned in Sept. 12 at the Kalispell Invitational. Clary set a new course record with a time of 14:31.
“I was feeling very confident coming into the Kalispell Invitational," said Clary. "But, I knew there were runners there that had beaten me in the past, I knew I would have to run a really hard race in order to win."
Clary stepped up and dethroned the previous record by a mere second. Who was the previous record holder? Shannon Butler of Eureka, who went on to be a NCAA champion for Montana State, and whose record went untouched through 12 seasons. Despite the record’s epic status in FHS cross country history, Clary says the record wasn't on his mind at the time of the race.
"In a big race like this, you almost have to throw times out the window and just go for place," said Clary. "Usually if you get the place you want, the times will come."
"When we are training, we all pick up the pace, more than probably what the coach likes us to do," said Winegar. "We are all very competitive, especially Kevin and I."
One week later in Great Falls, it wasn’t Clary or Winegar leading the pack, but instead sophomore David Vidal. Vidal finished with a time of 15:48 —17 seconds in front of Clary, who finished second, and 46 seconds ahead of Winegar, who placed fourth. The race was an accurate representation of the competitiveness between team members. Other current members of the varsity team, according to the team’s web site, are freshman Kurt Michels, sophomore Seth Watkins, junior Pat Murphy, and senior Robbie Lamb.
"I wasn't surprised," said Jorgensen. "Either of those three runners are capable of winning state, it just depends on who ever runs the smartest on that day."
Training for the cross-country season is a year-round priority for the Braves top distance runners. Vidal says he does mileage workouts consistently throughout the summer, averaging close to 50 miles per week.
The Braves in-season training rituals sometimes include a "second run" after the scheduled team practice. It is these vigorous training rituals that raised Jorgensen’s concerns about over-training and burnouts.
But, despite Jorgensen's concerns, Winegar says he realizes the threat of over-training and burn outs, but isn't worried.
"There are people who train super hard and they run hard all the time — they like that feeling," said Winegar. "Burnouts: you can let it happen to you or you can let it not happen to you."
Jorgensen believes he has found a workout that has optimized his team’s success throughout the years.
"There is a fine line between doing too much and not doing enough," said Jorgensen. "We've found that fine line, and that might be what separates us from other teams. We've found it through years of experience and (running) more is not always better."
Clary is one of those athletes who feels that vigorous training schedules are crucial to a runner's success.
"If you want to be a good basketball player you have to shoot a lot of baskets,” said Clary. “Like any other sport, the more you put into it, the more you will get out of it."
So far what Clary has gotten out of 1998 is two individual wins and three team wins in three meets. But the toughest tests are yet to come. This weekend, the Braves will compete in the prestigious Mountain West Classic in Missoula, and Oct. 3, they will travel to Yakima, Wash., to compete in the Sunfair Invitational.
In Yakima, the Braves will get their chance to run against University High of Spokane, Wash. — the nation’s fifth- ranked team. A strong perfomance could raise the Braves’ national ranking.
According to Clary, the Braves are excited to compete against other ranked teams. "Being ranked number eight, a lot of teams are out there to knock us off," said Clary. "They'll get their chance in Yakima. There will be other ranked teams and we want to come out on top — we want to show the rest of the country what we're made of." |
