Columbus North’s Neal White is The Republic Boys Cross Country Runner of the Year.
Mike Wolanin | The Republic
Neal White set a goal to break 15 minutes, 20 seconds for 5K (3.1 miles) this cross-country season, so when he achieved that the second meet of the year, he set his goals a little higher.
White ended up finishing 12th in the state finals to earn All-State honors and lead Columbus North to a sixth-place team finish. The junior is The Republic Boys Cross-Country Runner of the Year.
“I wanted to be sub-15:20, and then, the second meet, I hit that goal, so from there, it was seeing how much further I could go,” White said.
White has made a steady progression to become the Bull Dogs’ No. 1 runner. He was a JV runner as a freshman before running mostly in the No. 4 spot as a sophomore.
“I think it was going in as a freshman, not letting middle school really define me as much because in middle school, I was never the No. 1 runner,” White said. “Then going into freshman year, I was sort of able to not really hold myself back and work a lot more. Especially over the summer after the team camp, I made a big jump.”
This year, White was North’s No. 1 runner in every meet.
“By the end of track season especially, and going into the summer, it was preparation to a degree where I needed to be ready to sort of lead others,” White said. “It was a change from last year for sure, from being behind a group with some of the senior guys to this year, being sort of on my own for races and for workouts for the most part.”
“Neal knew coming out of track season that he had gotten a lot better,” North coach Rick Sluder added. “He had a really good track season and just grew right into a leadership role. He led in training and led in all those leadership categories of getting guys to practice and organizing summer runs and was a real leader at camp. He led us start to finish all season and did a really nice job of just every single day, being the best guy out here.”
After posting a personal-best 16:44 5K at the end of his freshman year, White lowered that to 15:41 last year. This season, he went 15:13 in the Rick Weinhemier Classic at Ceraland and 15:12 at Tell City. Although he didn’t run faster than that in the postseason, the courses were more difficult.
“I’ve been really happy with my progression overall,” White said. “I think in the offseasons between every cross-country and every track season, I think I’ve been able to make big improvements, which has helped me sort of improve my running and standards.”
That especially was the case over the past year.
“During the offseason, my mileage increased a little bit from last year, and then my workouts improved quite a bit from last year,” White said. “I think it also helps that I maybe wasn’t doing a lot more work, but I was able to do it faster and a lot more effectively. I was getting the most out of workouts and runs that I could instead of just trying to increase my mileage a ton or making the workouts even harder.”
Next year, White hopes to break 15:00. But before that, he’ll try to go under 9:10 in the 3,200 meters and make it to state in track. He finished fourth in the regional in the 3,200, missing by one spot of qualifying for state.
White, who ranks 16th in his class with 4.308 GPA, wants to go into urban design, so he may study civil engineering or environmental engineering in college. He hopes to also continue his running career at the next level.
“I’d like to run in college,” White said. “I think it would be nice to continue it and keep it going.”
The Republic All-Area Boys Cross-Country team:
Neal White, Columbus North: The junior won the sectional and finished 12th in the regional and 12th at state.
Akot Tong, Columbus North: The senior finished fourth in the sectional, 17th in the regional and 67th at state.
Jace Works, Columbus North: The sophomore finished fifth in the sectional, 19th in the regional and 100th at state.
Logan Vanzant, Columbus North: The sophomore finished 12th in the sectional, 43rd in the regional and 111th at state.
Draven Martinez, Columbus North: The junior finished 10th in the sectional, 31st in the regional and 120th at state.
Adam Reckers, Columbus North: The senior finished 11th in the sectional, 34th in the regional and 139th at state.
Jonny Klaus, Columbus North: The junior finished 13th in the sectional, 48th in the regional and 171st at state.
Kraedyn Young, Jennings County: The junior finished second in the sectional, 14th in the regional and 44th at state.
Colin Kistler, Hauser: The senior finished 20th in the sectional and 83rd in the regional.
Nolan Dailey, Hauser: The sophomore finished 17th in the sectional and 109th in the regional.
Honorable mention
Brown County: Corbin Brahaum, Kai Koester, Aden Skaggs, Charlie Webb, Eli Wrightsman. Columbus East: Jackson Brookes, Austin Menefee. Columbus North: Damien Dixon, Denton Sluder. Jennings County: Lain Ernstes, Dawson Leak, Aaron Lewis, Brock Maschino, Zachary Wahlman. South Decatur: Donovan Hale.
