Junior falls short of goal at state
Matt Brock isn’t used to turning the first page of the packet to find his name on the cross country results list. Before Saturday, his slowest 5K time of the year was 18 minutes, 17 seconds at regionals.
So you can understand why the junior wasn’t pleased with his time of 18:36 at Saturday’s state meet in Wamego.
“I think the biggest problem was just not having my team with me,” Brock said. “Even warming up, I didn’t know who I was running with. I just ran by myself and stretched. During the race, usually for the first mile, I’ll have David (Powell) and Dalton (Lawson) pretty close to me and they help out.”
Tonganoxie didn’t qualify for state as a team and Brock was the lone member of the boys team who ran the race. Brock finished in 53rd place.
Mulvane won the boys team race, while Mulvane junior David Roberts took the crown individually with a time of 16:30.
During the season, Brock was a virtual lock to finish close to the Top 5 overall in every meet.
Brock expressed discontent with his results after several meets before state. He’s as close to a perfectionist as you’ll meet on the cross country course.
“He’s pretty hard on himself,” THS coach Phil Williams said. “He’s harder on himself than I am. I know he was disappointed Saturday and I was disappointed for him.”
Brock placed 27th at the state meet in Wamego last year as a sophomore. This season, he expected to improve on that place.
“I really thought he had at least a 50/50 chance to medal, which is the top 20,” Williams said. “It is different not to see him in the top few. It’s tough at state, obviously, to be in the top few runners.”
Brock mentioned in the offseason, particularly next summer, he was going to put in extra time with his teammates to prepare for a successful senior campaign.
“I have a hard summer workout program I’m going to put together,” Brock said. “I did it this last summer a little bit, but not as much as I should have. We just need to get out there and run.”
Brock’s finishes overall this season
2 — 17:28 (Tonganoxie quad)
3 — 17:48 (Maur Hill Invitational)
3 — 17:47 (McLouth Invitational)
4 — 17:14 (Tonganoxie Invitational)
5 — 17:48 (Rim Rock Invitational)
6 — 17:29 (Mill Valley Cat Classic)
4 — 17:07 (League meet at Perry-Lecompton)
10 — 18:17 (Regional meet at Ottawa)
53 — 18:36 (State meet at Wamego)