South Pointe cross-country runner Brown cruises to state title, the school’s first
Garrett Brown knew he’d won the 4A state cross-country meet minutes before he crossed the finish line.
There’s a 180-degree turn about a half-mile from the finish line at the Newberry cross-country course, giving the South Pointe High School senior a chance to look back at the field.
Once Brown saw how large the gap was between him and second place, all he had to do was maintain his lead.
“When I noticed I had a little over 100-meter gap with about half a mile to go, I knew that I could hold that gap,” Brown said. “From then on, it was just hunker down, get through the race and hopefully finish in first.”
Brown finished the Nov. 10 race with a time of 15 minutes, 50.53 seconds, which was almost 17 seconds ahead of second place. That time was 1:51 faster than his time at last year’s meet where Brown finished 22nd.
The state championship marked the end to a solid season for Brown, who had won the state qualifier and two other meets prior.
The season started off slow for Brown. At the first meet of the year on Aug. 26, he ran a 16:16.7 at the Providence Cross Country Invitational on Aug. 26.
Brown bounced back not just with an improved time but a personal-best of 15:36.70 in a third-place finish at the Sept. 2 Eye Opener Invitational in Spartanburg.
That was a great time. A time that could make Brown the first cross-country state champion in South Pointe history.
“I was pretty consistent all season,” Brown said. “I think I raced eight or nine times. My first race was a little slower than I expected, and then from there, had a big jump, and then from there just stayed pretty consistent right there in the mid-high fifteens.”
“After seeing how everybody else in the state was racing and that I had a gap, I knew that I could just take it out, that I could run my race and just force everybody else to adapt and just be comfortable with how I’m running.”
Brown’s victory helped the Stallions boys cross-country team finish 10th out of 16 teams, with 225 points.
It’s a major achievement for South Pointe cross- country coach Trish Sacco. She joined the staff in 2012 and took the head coaching job in 2017.
Sacco saw that spectators would sit down and watch Brown during the spring track season as he ran the 1,600 and 3,200-meter races instead of heading to the concession stands, and that carried over to the fall cross-country season.
Sacco said Brown not only set new heights for the program, he also changed the culture.
“I noticed as the season went on, and as he continued to run faster and faster, you would hear people in the stands like ‘whoa, watch this kid, watch this kid. Here he comes again.’ And he made long-distance running cool for track. For cross-country, where we have seventh through 12th graders, these kids have watched what he’s done this season, and they’ve learned from him, they want to be him.”
She said that Brown’s work ethic and dedication is a great example for the school’s other runners.
“(To get where Brown got, you have to) work your tail off,” Sacco said. “Do what you’re supposed to do, eat what you’re supposed to eat. Don’t do dumb things. If you want it, it’s not going to be given to you. You have to work for it. Garrett has proven that no matter how high the goal that you set, you can reach it. You just have to be willing to dig in and do the work.”
Brown has yet to commit to a college but said he has received some interest from programs like Virginia Tech.
