Fort Worth Christian junior Carter Cheeseman wins his third straight state cross country title, sort of. Cheeseman won his first TAPPS individual cross country state championship with his 5A boys win on Monday.
Cheeseman previously won two state titles in Tennessee, but when his family's relocated to Fort Worth, he had the opportunity to pave a path for himself in Texas.
That path led to the trail of the awards stand at the TAPPS 5A boys state meet. Cheeseman, who has one of the top boys 5K times in the nation took on the course at the Cottonwood Creek Golf Course and won. After the first two miles, the race was all Cheeseman as he battled the elements and focused on his race. "I tried to hone in and focus on my race," Cheeseman said. "The wind was in my face down the stretch, I just used bigger arms and bigger legs."
With a 14:42.44 5K PR on the season, he was able to string together a couple of quality miles and a good enough solo performance to produce a 15:47.5 in a hefty wind. That will likely be the end to the solo runs this season as Cheeseman will be competing in the post season meets. The plan is to run in both the Nike Cross Nationals South Regional and the Foot Locker South Regional. At both races, several of the top national runners in the region will compete including a possible anticipated Cheeseman/Maier match up in one or both of them.
With his regular season being complete, there is definitely a lot more running left for Cheeseman and perhaps we'll be featuring more of him on the upcoming Winsdays.
