6A Boys Preseason Preview: Camden Gibson

Coming in at the #7 spot in our 6A Preseason Preview and the second junior of the bunch is College Park's Camden Gibson. Gibson marks the fourth runner on the list who returns to lead one of last year's top five teams at the state meet.

Gibson resumes the trend of runners who were immediately state-caliber contenders when they entered high school. And while we've moved away from that over the last few weeks, Gibson's career path to where he is today is clear and exciting.

Much like his team, he's proven to be an underrated commodity despite his stellar performances over the last two years. That said, we've already given College Park some much-deserved shine as they came in at #4 on the team side of these rankings. Gibson will return to lead the team for his second year at the school and he looks poised to make a big jump this fall. So, let's dive into why he's poised for this big jump and how he influences College Park's podium hopes this fall.

Much like his 6A-Region 2 counterpart Benjamin Montgomery, Gibson didn't spend the first year of his career on a state title-contending team. He originally attended Klein Cain where he had one of the best freshman track seasons we saw that year, only finishing behind Caden Leonard. While Gibson has achieved most of his notoriety and his team accolades specifically at College Park, it's still important to talk about his time at Klein Cain so we can see how changing programs helped progress him into the runner he is now.

Gibson had a relatively brief cross-country season his freshman year as he only competed thrice over the 5000m distance. However, he still had an impressive season, running 15:43.40 for three miles and 16:04.00 over 5000m which secured him fourth place at the 2022 Teams South Regional Championships. While Gibson's cross-country results may be overshadowed by what would follow in the spring, they still serve an important purpose in setting a base for future improvements.

Camden Gibson (#2266) kicks home to the finish line at the 2023 UIL Region 2-6A Cross Country Championships

While his cross-country campaign was a good start, Gibson shined on the track and he opened up his first year with a slew of impressive performances. He ran 1:56.98 over 800m in early March and then ran an impressive 4:25.60 and 9:47.17 double the following week. While Gibson did showcase his range, he'd choose to focus on the 800m and 1600m as the season went on. He ran a personal best of 1:56.14 over 800m at the UIL District 15-6A meet and then followed this up by running 4:16.72 over 1600m at the area meet the following week.

Making regionals as a freshman is remarkable in and of itself, however, Gibson pushed this boundary even further as he nearly qualified for the state meet. He finished third in a tightly contested 1600m race, running 4:23.13, and just missed out on the notoriously difficult-to-acquire wild card spot. While just missing out on the state meet had to have left a sour taste in his mouth, nearly making the state meet as a freshman was a remarkable accomplishment that Gibson would soon build on at a new program.

Heading into his sophomore year, Gibson would transfer to College Park in The Woodlands to train and compete under his father who leads the program. Many would see this to be a great move as College Park is a perennially good program, which although often overshadowed by their crosstown rival, has a long history of producing good teams. This move would also mean that we'd get to see Gibson take advantage of a longer cross-country season and that's exactly what he did.

Gibson opened up his 2023 cross-country season like many other Houston teams did at the Texas A&M High School Invitational. He finished fifth overall in a new personal best of 15:58.50 and gave himself a great base to work from to start the year. Additionally, he also helped College Park finish second as a team behind Bridgeland, giving them a benchmark for where they stood against the region's best.

He then went on to have a tough race at a loaded Nike South Invitational, however, it was time for the championship season where Gibson would shine. He had a great bounce-back race at the UIL 6A-District 13 meet where he ran 15:59.00 to finish second. Heading into regionals, College Park looked to be slated to qualify for the state meet but there were no guarantees. Much of their potential relied heavily on how well Gibson could perform and that's a lot of pressure for someone in their first year at a program, let alone a sophomore.

Gibson races in the last half of the 2023 UIL 6A Cross Country State Championships

Despite this pressure, Gibson put on a great performance in a race fraught with terrible conditions. He finished seventh overall in a time of 16:05.41 and helped College Park finish third as a team and qualify for the state meet by a comfortable margin. While College Park had qualified for the state meet, there wasn't a ton in the way of expectations. Their potential as a young team was evident, however, there wasn't a clear idea of how well they could translate this into a result at such a tightly contested meet.

I put them 12th in my state meet predictions which in retrospect was far too low as they went on to prove me wrong by a long shot. At the state meet, Gibson had the best performance of his career by a mile as he ran a monster 15:19.00 personal best to finish ninth overall. Additionally, the rest of his team showed out as College Park finished fifth overall as a team and even beat Region-2 champion Bridgeland. Not only was Gibson's performance the best of his career, but it demonstrated how the performance of your lead runner can elevate the rest of the team.

Understandably, Gibson had a ton of momentum heading into his sophomore track season and he'd look to capitalize on it. Momentum generally brings pressure along with it, however, Gibson handled this beautifully and started his season off with a string of good performances.

He started his season earlier than most in mid-February where he ran a solid 4:21.30 1600m at the Zoe Simpson Invitational. He'd then follow this up by running his only 3200m of the season at the Tomball Cougar Relays where he'd lower his personal best down to 9:37.32 while also taking home the win. Both of these performances were solid, however, as the season got rolling we'd truly get to see Gibson's elite form.

Our first sighting of it was at the Cain Relays on March 2nd where Gibson ran an incredible 800m/1600m double which saw him take home personal bests in both events. He ran 1:55.77 over 800m and then ran 4:12.55 over 1600m that afternoon to cement himself as one of the state's top sophomores. After this meet, he'd go on to race at the Seven Lakes Relays where he'd win both the 800m and the mile in times of 1:56.14 and 4:16.59 respectively.

By now, it was time for the championship season and Gibson would start it off hot with two great races at the UIL 6A-District 13 meet. He ran 1:53.07 for a two-second personal best over 800m and then followed this up by running 4:14.94 for the win in the 1600m.

Despite his great performances in both races, Gibson would only contest the 1600m at the area and regional meets. This would prove to be a good choice as he easily came away with the win at the area meet, running a 4:11.55 personal best. Next, it was time for regionals where Gibson again showcased himself as one of the state's top talents. In a tightly contested field, he came away with the win in a time of 4:12.86 to punch his ticket to the state meet.

While Gibson was ultimately disqualified at the state meet, he'd still had an incredible season which saw him establish four new personal bests and qualify for the state meet. At the moment, his personal bests stand at 1:53.07 over 800m, 4:11.55 over 1600m, 4:16.59 for the full mile, and 9:37.32 over 3200m.

Heading into the fall, I'd say Gibson is one of the top guys to watch and that he's one of the guys that we could see finish much higher than his current ranking. He made a big jump in 2023 after having a great track season and I think we could see that replicated in a bigger way this fall. He made sizable improvements in the spring to what were already impressive and fast personal bests and I'd say that makes him a dangerous contender in November. He has a much faster starting point this season and I think we could see him dip under the 15:00 mark and end up near the podium if he maximizes his potential.

For now, Camden Gibson comes in at No. 7 in this year's preseason rankings, but expect him to gradually move up as the season goes on and look for him to have yet another big jump in performance this fall.