Casady's Bass used extra time for training, improving skills
Sam Bass is improving. The senior distance runner at Casady hasn't stopped running since the coronavirus pandemic started. With the extra time to focus on improving his skills before he heads to the University of Texas in August to run on the cross country and track teams, Bass has been training every day. That's something he wouldn't have been able to do if he was competing every week.
“When you're running in meets, you don't have time to really just train and focus on improving,” Bass said. “Now with the extra time, I've been training full speed since Jan. 1, and I'm in the best shape of my life.”
Bass was gunning for state records and more before his high school season was canceled.
In February, he ran a 9:13 during the 3,200- meter run at the Indoor Distance Challenge at Pittsburg State in Kansas. Then during the only two outdoor meets he raced this year, Bass won the 1,600meter run in 4:28 at the Shawnee Track and Field Jim Thorpe Invitational and the 3,200-meter run in 9:34 at the Holland Hall Phil Sweeney Invitational, which set a meet record.
The Casady boys also took first at both meets.
Those around Bass have become used to him winning every time he races. He was named Oklahoma's Gatorade Cross Country Runner of the Year in 2018, also winning the 2018 cross country Oklahoma Meet of Champions.
In track, he won the Southwest Preparatory Conference championship in the 3,200 while placing second in the 1,600 last year, which he said was one of his favorite memories running for Casady.
His 1,600 and 3,200 times were tops of every distance runner in Oklahoma when the season came to a halt.
For his career, he set Casady records for the 5K run in cross country and the 1,600 and 3,200 in track.
He chose to sign with Texas over Georgetown, Cal and Virginia, among others.
Although his time running for Casady is done, he's still shooting for one more state record before he heads off to Texas.
“I'm hoping to hold out for some races in June or a timed trial because I want to break the state record in the 3,200,” Bass said. “It's 8:59.97, so if we're able to get back to racing, that's what I'm shooting for.”
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