Rebecca Story, Carter Coughlin started season looking past states to nationals
Christian Academy’s Rebecca Story and Webb’s Carter Coughlin have had their sights set on high school cross country’s biggest prize since they started training for their senior seasons back in the summer.
Saturday, they’ll be joined by Catholic junior Jake Renfree as Knoxville runners participating in the prestigious Foot Locker Cross Country National Championship at Balboa Park’s Morley Field in San Diego, Calif.
For Story and Coughlin, who dominated at the local and state levels for the last couple of years, it has hardly been a typical cross country season.
Everything – from training, to scheduling and traveling – has been geared toward reaching nationals.
The meet features the top 40 girls and top 40 boys distance runners in the country, who qualified by finishing in the top 10 of four regional races.
“My program this season has been a lot different than any past season,” said Story, who will run for Stanford. “Like any other season, I wanted to do well at region and state, but my focus has been on the Foot Locker regional and nationals.”
Story skipped the KIL meet in October to run in the Wendy’s Invitational in Charlotte, N.C., on the McAlpine Greenway course that was the site of the Foot Locker South Regional.
She first won KIL as an eighth-grader and would have been going for an unprecedented fifth-consecutive win there.
Coughlin admitted it was strange setting goals beyond the state meet, where he nonetheless went out and won his third individual state championship in a row.
“It was kind of weird,” said Coughlin, who has signed with Wake Forest. “KIL was not the goal, region was not the goal and the state meet was not the goal. I’ve definitely tried to focus on only the key meets.”
Coughlin said he even had to take his foot off his preferred pedal-to-the-metal style of running knowing the season could extend well past the state meet in November.
“I’ve always tried my hardest and wanted to kill it every meet,” he explained. “I just tried to stay super focused on the end goal and focus on everything leading up to this meet. Looking back, it was hard to stay focused, but obviously I think it worked.”
A storied career
Story can cement her legacy as Tennessee’s greatest girls high school distance runner with a win Saturday.
She was third in the event last year with a 5K time of 17 minutes, 35.4 seconds.
Kathy Kroeger (2006) of Independence is the only Tennessee runner to win Foot Locker nationals since the meet’s inception in 1979.
“This is definitely bittersweet, being my last high school cross country meet,” Story said.
“I really want to go into the race relaxed and I want to improve on last year’s third-place finish.”
Coughlin won't hold back
After pulling in the reins at some of his meets this season, Coughlin said there will be no holding back Saturday as he runs the final race of his high school career.
“It’s definitely exciting to be able to just go out and try and kill it,” he said.
“It’s kind of freeing. I don’t have a dead-set goal for the race, maybe top 10 or top seven. I just want to go out there, run with the front pack and get a feel for things.”
Renfree remains a wildcard
While Story and Coughlin were expected to qualify for nationals, Renfree surprised even himself by placing eighth at regional to earn a trip to San Diego.
“I ran in the South regional just to get a feel for it and get ready for next year,” said Renfree, who is a junior.
“Saturday, I’m hoping to have a lot of fun and maybe shoot for a top-20 finish. This has been just an incredible experience. I didn’t think I would be in this position this year.”
Mike Blackerby is a freelance contributor.