Tomorrow, the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools (TAPPS) cross country state meet will go down at Cottonwood Creek Golf Course, in Waco, Texas.
Carter Cheeseman of Forth Worth Christian will run in his first TAPPS state meet. Cheeseman is a junior who transferred to Fort Worth Christian from Brentwood Academy over the summer. Brentwood is a national powerhouse cross country program in Nashville, Tennessee.
At Brentwood, Cheeseman was a distance standout winning the 2015 and 2016 TSAA state cross country championships as Brentwood was again one of the nation's top programs last season.
Cheeseman comes from a family of runners. Both of his parents competed collegiately as Cheeseman's father, Ken Cheeseman competed at the University of Virginia and mother Cathy Cheeseman at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Mrs. Cheeseman is also Coach Cheeseman, as his mother is his coach. Last season, Coach Cheeseman coached the Brentwood girls team to a state title in both cross country and track and she has since joined the staff at Fort Worth Christian. Older sister, Allison is currently the captain of the cross country and track team at Davidson College in North Carolina. His other older sister, Claire is currently a freshman running at Belmont University in Nashville.
Although distance seems to be a family affair, running has been completely voluntary. Mr. Cheeseman said, "We did not know nor was it important to us if our children ever wanted to invest in distance running as we did. When they were young, we had all of our children play soccer, basketball, football, anything except for running distance."
Earlier in the season, Cheeseman rolled off some of the fastest 5K times in the state. He started off with a 15:01.70 at the Southlake Carroll Invitational and followed that up with one of the fastest times in the nation with his 14:42.44 at the Keller HS Invitational. Then, he ran against some of the nation's best runners at the Great American Cross Country Festival and he dropped a 15:12.90 on a challenging course.
It is now championship season and Cheeseman started things off with a 15:46.71 at the TAPPS 5A District 1 for first place. Tomorrow, Cheeseman will begin his battle with the competitors at the TAPPS state meet as it will be his first opportunity for a state title. Afterwards, he will attempt to win a TAPPS title followed by an NXN or Foot Locker Title.
