Optimism high for LaFayette XC
Head coach Chris O’Neil is beginning his fourth year heading up the LaFayette High School cross country program and he says he’s excited about the prospects for this year and for the future of the program.
“This will be my fourth year here and we have some four-year seniors I’m very excited about,” he said. “The goal is for the entire team, boys and girls, to make it to state. It hasn’t happened since I’ve been here and from what people have told me, it hasn’t happened here in a while, maybe ever. But I think we’re headed in the right direction. It’s going to happen very soon and I think this year might be the year.”
O’Neil has about 35 runners on board for the 2016 season and he is hopeful that total will rise in the near future.
“We just started a (cross country) program at LaFayette Middle School, which I’m really excited about,” he explained. “They’ve been coming over here and practicing some alongside the high schoolers. They’re bringing about 15-20 runners over here every day to use our facilities, so the future looks bright.”
LaFayette will have some of the top returning female runners in the county, led by last year’s Walker County Runner of the Year Kaci Rogers. Rogers was her team’s fastest finisher in every race she ran as a sophomore in 2015, averaging 26:36 for the season. That average was also the among all female high school cross country runners in the county.
O’Neil said he would also be counting on seniors Ali Gilbreath, Maddie Stier and Rachel Graham to post solid times for the Lady Ramblers.
Stier and Gilbreath
joined Rogers on the Walker County Girls' Dream Team last fall.
“Ali has put in a lot of work and it looks like she’ll be in the top four and Rachel, who stars as a 400 and 800 (meter) runner on the track team, is showing promise. She’s back and running really hard, too.”
On the boys’ side, O’Neil said senior Eric Hu is really stepping
up in his final season, while others, such as senior Jacob Clarke, junior Matthew Newsom and sophomores Beau Thrash and William Sainthill have been putting in a lot of miles in the off-season.
However, perhaps the biggest addition to the LaFayette cross country team is new assistant coach Daniel Hamilton, a nationallyranked and respected long distance runner.
“He brings a lot of intensity and knowledge about running to
our program and we’re really excited about that,” O’Neil said. “This a guy who ran collegiately and is about a 4:03 miler. He won the local Stump Jump 50K and qualified for U.S. Nationals in the 50K this last year. He’s a pretty intense runner.
“We were very lucky to get him. He’s a guidance counselor and he was looking for a job and we had slots open for both a guidance counselor and a cross country coach, so he really fit the bill.”